BX  9418  .3632  1909 
Smyth,  Thomas,  1808-187 i 
Calvin  defended 


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(*        .11  J. 

^i 

Caluin  Dpfraded 

A   MEMOIR 

OF  THE  LIFE,   CHARACTER 

AND  PRINCIPLES  OF 

]|ohn  Caluin 

BY  THE 
REV.  THOMAS  SMYTH,  D.  D. 

nm  lEilition 

« 

PHILADELPHIA: 

PRESBYTERIAN  BOARD  OF  PUBLICATION 

190  © 

L  20  1909 


;/CAL  sw 


.^^ 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  18S8 ,  hj 

JAMES  DUNLAP, 

In  the  Office  of  the  Clerk  of  the  District  Court  of  the  Eaatern 
District  of  Pennsylvania. 


Wkstoott  &  Thomson, 
Stertotypers  and  Electrotypers,  Philada. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTEB  I. 

PAGK 

Lntroductory  Remarks 9 

CHAPTER  TT. 
Calvin  was  the  most  Eminent  of  all  the  Reformers, 
AND  Remarkable  for  his  Courage 15 

CHAPTER  III. 
The  Genius  and  Works  op  Calvin 22 

CHAPTER  IV. 
Calvin  vindicated  from  the  Charge  of  Ambition, 
AND  HIS  True  Greatness  and  Wonderful  Influ- 
ence SHOWN 30 

CHAPTER  V. 
Calvin  vindicated  from  the  Charge  of  Illiberality, 
Intolerance  and  Persecution 43 

CHAPTER  VI. 
Calvin  vindicated  from  the  Charge  of  a  Want  op 
Natural  Affection  and  Friendship 69 

CHAPTER  Vll. 
The  Obligations  which  we  owe  to  Calvin  as  Amer- 
ican Citizens  and  Christians,  illustrated 74 

3 


4  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

PAGE 

The  Closing  Scenes  of  Calvin's  Life 83 

CHAPTER  IX. 

A  Supplementary  Vindication  of  the  Ordination  of 
Calvin 90 

CHAPTER  X. 
The  Case  of  Servetus. — Who  are  Calvin's  Revilers?  109 

CHAPTER  XI. 
The  Will  op  John  Calvin 129 

CHAPTER  XII. 

The  Views  of  Calvin  on  Prelacy  vindicated  by  the 
Rev.  Samuel  Miller,  D.  D 136 

CHAPTER  XIII. 
Testimonials  to  Calvin 168 

CHAPTER  XIV. 
Calvin's  Wife 175 

APPENDIX. 

Origin  of  the  Calumny  that  Calvin  wished  to  Ab- 
rogate the  Lord's  Day 196 

Melanchthon's  Approbation  of  the  Course  of  Cal- 
vin TOWARD  Servetus 197 

The  Testimony  of  a  Unitarian 198 

Temptation  of  John  Calvin 201 

Calvin's  Ordination 204 

Calvin's  Mission  to  Brazil 206 


PREFACE. 


The  fact  that  John  Calvin  was  led  by  the  grace 
of  God  to  embrace  and  defend  all  the  essential 
principles  of  doctrine  and  polity  which  distinguish 
the  system  of  Presbyterianism  has  exposed  him  to 
the  unceasing  calumny  of  all  those  to  whom  that 
system  is  unpalatable.  Romanists,  prelatists,  and 
errorists  of  every  name,  have  vied  with  one  an- 
other in  their  efforts  to  blacken  his  character  and 
detract  from  his  fame.  The  defence  of  Calvin 
against  these  misrepresentations  is  necessary  for 
the  glory  of  that  God  who  called  him  by  his  rich 
grace,  for  the  honor  of  that  truth  in  whose  cause 
Calvin  lived  and  died,  and  for  the  maintenance 
of  that  Church  to  which  he  was  attached,  and 
which  is  built  upon  the  foundation  laid  by  apos- 
tles and  prophets,  Jesus  Christ  himself  being 
tlie  chief  Corner-stone.  And  this  defence  is  in 
a  peculiar  manner  the  privilege  and  duty  of  Pres- 

5 


6  PREFACE. 

byterians,  with  whom  Calvin  has  been  so  general- 
ly identified. 

Actuated  by  these  views,  the  alumni  of  the 
theological  seminary  at  Princeton  appointed  the 
author  to  deliver  a  discourse  in  vindication  of 
the  life  and  character  of  Calvin  at  their  an- 
niversary meeting  in  May,  1843.  The  substance 
of  the  following  little  work  was  accordingly  de- 
livered in  Philadelphia,  in  the  Second  Presby- 
terian church,  during  the  sessions  of  the  General 
Assembly.  At  the  request  of  the  alumni  it  has 
since  been  published  in  some  of  our  religious 
papere,  and  it  is  now  prepared,  by  the  desire 
of  the  Board  of  Publication  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church,  for  publication  as  one  of  their  volumes. 

That  it  may  lead  the  members  of  our  beloved 
Church  more  highly  to  estimate  and  prize  the 
character  and  achievements  of  Calvin,  that  they 
may  thus  be  incited  to  bless  God  (who  raised  up 
Calvin  and  qualified  him  for  his  work)  for  his 
past  dealings  with  his  Church,  while  they  hum- 
bly look  for  his  continued  guidance  and  pro- 
tection, and  that  the  inhabitants  of  this  country 
may  be  brought  by  it  more  deeply  to  appreciate 


PREFACE.  7 

the  influence  of  Calvin  and  of  the  system  he 
advocated  in  securing  those  blessings  of  religious 
and  civil  freedom  by  which  they  are  distinguish- 
ed, is  the  sincere  prayer  of 

The  Author. 


NOTE  BY  THE  PUBLISHERS. 

This  work,  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Smythe,  has  proved 
80  valuable  and  so  useful  that,  the  original  edition 
having  been  exhausted,  it  is  now  stereotyped  and 
this  new  edition  offered  to  the  public  by 

The  PtJBUSHEBS. 

NoYfOiBSB,  1881. 


THE 

LIFE  AND  OHAEAOTEE 

OP 

JOHN  CALVIN. 


CHAPTER    I. 

INTRODUCTORY  REMARKS. 

■  PRESBYTERIANS— that  is,  the  great  body 
-*-  of  the  Reformed  Church  throughout  the 
world — have  been  very  commonly  denominated 
"Calvinists.''  Not  that  they  are  followers  of  Cal- 
vin either  in  doctrine  or  in  discipline,  since  the 
doctrines  and  discipline  embraced  by  Presbyteri- 
ans existed  previous  to  the  appearance  of  Calvin 
and  were  adopted,  and  not  originated,  by  him. 
Calvin,  however,  being  the  great  theologian  of 
the  Reformers,  so  well  defended,  so  clearly  ex- 
pounded and  so  perfectly  systematized  these  prin- 
ciples as  to  connect  with  them,  wherever  they 
are  known,  his  illustrious  name.     The  term  "  Cal- 

vinist"  was  first  employed  in  the  year  1562  in 

9 


10  JOHN  CALVIN. 

reference  to  the  standards  of  the  Huguenots  or 
French  Reformed  churches,  which  Calvin  drew 
up,  from  which  time  it  came  to  be  employed  as 
characteristic  of  all  those  who  adopted  similar 
doctrinal  principles.*  These  principles,  however, 
no  more  originated  with  Calvin  than  did  the 
Bible,  for  they  are  the  very  same  which  were 
held  forth  by  the  apostles,  which  were  proclaim- 
ed in  all  the  apostolic  churches,  which  were  main- 
tained by  the  ancient  Culdees,  by  the  Waldenses 
and  by  other  pure  and  scriptural  bodies,  and  which 
were  eminently  defended  by  the  celebrated  Augus- 
tine and  by  other  divines  in  every  period  of  the 
Church. 

As  Presbyterians  we  hold  no  principles  which 
are  not  found  in  the  word  of  God.  We  claim 
no  antiquity  less  recent  than  the  primeval  or- 
ganization of  the  Church  of  God  on  earth.  In 
our  Christian  form,  we  build  upon  the  only  foun- 
dation laid  in  Zion,  the  foundation  of  apostles 
and  prophets,  Jesus  Christ  himself  being  the 
chief  Corner-stone.  "We  call  no  man  master 
upon  earth.  We  know  no  man  after  the  flesh. 
We    call    neither    Abraham    nor    Moses,    neither 

*  Scott's  Continuation  of  Milner,  p.  472;  Waterman's  Life  of 
Calvin,  p.  210. 


INTRODUCTORY.  11 

Paul  nor  Augustine,  neither  Luther  nor  Calvin, 
"  our  father."  We  are  in  subjection  to  no  man, 
nor  do  we  wear  the  name  or  livery  of  any.  We 
are  Christians  in  doctrine  and  Presbyterians  in 
polity,  our  doctrine  being  deduced  from  the  Script- 
ures, and  Presbytery  being  the  only  polity  known 
to  the  apostles  or  to  the  apostolic  and  primitive 
churches  of  Christ. 

But,  while  we  so  speak,  let  us  not  be  supposed 
to  disparage  the  name  and  character  of  Calvin, 
or  to  depreciate  as  either  shame  or  reproach  the 
application  of  the  term  "  Calvinists."  In  the 
great  body  of  Calvin's  principles,  though  not  by 
any  means  in  all,  we  concur.  To  the  life,  char- 
acter and  conduct  of  Calvin  we  look  with  rev- 
erence and  high  esteem.  And,  while  we  apol- 
ogize not  for  his  errors  or  his  infirmities,  yet, 
were  we  required  to  be  called  by  any  human 
cognomen,  there  is  perhaps  no  other  man,  sin^e 
the  days  of  the  apostles,  by  whose  name  we 
would  prefer  to  be  designated. 

The  reputation  and  character  of  this  distin- 
guished Reformer  have  been  opposed  by  every 
artifice  of  ingenuity,  sophistry  and  malignity. 
The  vilest  and  most  baseless  calumnies  have 
been  heaped  upon  his  memory.     The  most  sense- 


12  JOHN  CALVIN. 

less  and  improbable  stories  have  been  invented 
to  blacken  his  character  and  to  detract  from  his 
illustrious  fame.  A  single  event,  distorted,  mis- 
represented and  in  all  its  circumstances  imputed 
to  his  single  agency,  although  consummated  by 
the  civil  authorities  of  the  republic,  and  although 
in  accordance  with  the  established  sentiments  of 
the  age,  has  been  made  to  color  his  whole  life,  to 
portray  his  habitual  conduct,  and  to  cover  with 
infamy  the  man  and  his  cause.  Now,  in  these 
very  efforts  of  his  enemies,  E-omish  and  prelatist, 
and  in  their  nature,  source  and  evident  design, 
we  find  a  noble  testimony  to  the  genius,  power 
and  worth  of  Calvin.  He  who  opposes  himself 
to  existing  customs  and  prevalent  opinions  must 
anticipate  resistance  in  proportion  to  the  success 
with  which  his  efforts  are  accompanied.  And 
while  such  opposition,  in  itself  considered,  does 
not  prove  that  such  a  man  is  right  in  his  scheme 
of  reformation,  but  only  that  his  plan  involves 
the  subversion  of  established  forms,  yet  may  we 
learn  the  character  of  such  an  intended  reforma- 
tion and  of  such  a  bold  reformer  by  the  very 
nature  of  that  opposition  which  is  brought  to 
bear  against  him.  And  if,  as  in  the  present  case, 
we  find  that  in  order  to  withstand  the  overwhelm- 


INTRODUCTORY.  13 

ing  influence  of  such  a  man  his  enemies  are  driven 
to  the  invention  of  forgeries  and  the  grossest  fab- 
rications, we  may  with  certainty  infer  that  his  per- 
/gonal  character  was  irreproachable.  In  like  man- 
ner^ when  these  enemies  are  led  to  meet  the  argu- 
ments of  such  a  man  by  personal  invective  and 
abuse,  we  may  be  equally  assured  that  his  is  the 
cause  of  truth  and  righteousness  and  theii-s  the 
cause  of  error,  v  Truth  is  strong  in  her  conscious  • 
and  imperishable  virtue.  She  therefore  seeks  the 
light,  courts  investigation  and  offers  herself  to  the 
most  impartial  scrutiny.  Error,  on  the  contrary, 
having  no  inward  strength,  is  weak  and  cowardly. 
She  seeks  the  covert  and  the  shade.  She  clothes 
herself  in  the  garments  of  concealment.  She  as- 
sumes borrowed  robes  and  names,  and  endeavors 
by  artifice  and  treachery  to  accomplish  her  base 
designs.  In  Calvin,  therefore,  we  have  a  tower 
built  upon  the  rock,  rearing  its  lofty  head  to  the 
clouds,  visible  from  afar  and  open  to  the  observa- 
tion of  all  men,  which,  though  the  floods  roar  and 
the  winds  arise  against  it,  yields  not  to  the  fury 
of  the  tempest,  because  its  foundations  are  secure. 
In  the  enemies  of  Calvin  we  behold  the  secret 
plotters  of  his  ruin,  who,  conscious  of  his  invin- 
cibility when   opposed   by  any  fair   or   honorable 


14  JOHN  CALVIN. 

onset,  dig  deep  within  the  bosom  of  the  earth, 
and,  there  concealed  by  darkness  and  buried  from 
all  human  sight,  ply  their  nefarious  arts  to  sap 
and  undermine,  and  by  well-concerted  stratagem 
to  overwhelm  in  destruction,  an  innocent  and  un- 
suspecting victim. 


CHAPTER   II. 

CALVIN  WAS  ONE  OF  THE  MOST  EMINENT  OF  ALL  THE  RE- 
FORMEES,  AND  REMARKABLE  FOR  HIS  COURAGE. 

"/^ALVIN,"  said  Bishop  Andrews,  ''  was  an 
^^  illustrious  person,  and  never  to  be  mention- 
ed without  a  preface  of  the  highest  honor."  "  Of 
what  account,'^  says  his  great  opponent,  Hooker, 
"  the  Master  of  Sentences  was  in  the  Church  of 
Rome,  the  same,  and  more,  amongst  the  preachers 
of  Reformed  churches  Calvin  had  purchased;  so 
that  the  perfectest  divines  were  judged  they  which 
were  skillfullest  in  Calvin's  writings;  his  books 
almost  the  very  canon  to  judge  both  doctrine  and 
discipline  by."  And  again,  concerning  his  Com- 
mentaries and  his  Institutes^  which  together  make 
up  eight  parts  out  of  nine  of  his  works,  Hooker 
adds,  "  We  should  be  injurious  unto  virtue  itself 
if  we  did  derogate  from  them  whom  their  industry 
hath  made  great.  Two  things  of  principal  moment 
there  are  which  have  deservedly  procured  him  hon- 
or throughout  the  world  :   the  one,  his  exceeding 

15 


16  JOHN  CALVIN. 

pains  in  composing  the  Institutes  of  the  Christian 
Religion;  the  other,  his  no  less  industrious  travails 
for  exposition  of  Holy  Scripture  according  unto 
the  same  Institutions,  In  which  two  things  who- 
soever they  were  that  after  him  bestowed  their  la- 
bor, he  gained  the  advantage  of  prejudice  against 
them  if  they  gainsayed,  and  of  glory  above  them 
if  they  consented." 

Such  was  the  estimation  in  which  Calvin  was 
held  by  his  contemporaries,  both  continental  and 
Anglican.  To  Cranmer  and  his  associates  in  the 
English  Reformation  he  was  all  in  all.  They 
sought  his  counsel,  leaned  upon  his  wisdom,  were 
guided  by  his  directions  and  sustained  by  his  con- 
solations. His  name  is  found  enrolled  with  honor 
in  the  Book  of  Convocation  so  late  as  the  seven- 
teenth century,  and  his  spirit  still  breathes  through 
those  Articles  which  have  preserved  the  Protestant- 
ism and  the  orthodoxy  of  the  English  Church.* 

Among  the  continental  Reformers,  Calvin  was 
equally  pre-eminent.  Giants  as  they  were  in  intel- 
lect, in  acquirement  and  in  prowess,  he  towered 
above  them  all  like  Saul  among  the  people  of 
Israel.  Where  all  were  great,  he  was  greatest. 
Though  naturally  less   bold  than  Luther,  he  was 

*  London  Christian  Observer,  1803,  pp.  143,  144. 


EMINENT  AMONG  REFORMERS.  17 

^enabled  to  manifest  a  superhuman  bravery,  and 
'was  even  in  this  respect  not  a  whit  behind  that 
,  noble  champion  of  the  truth.  "  He  was/'  says 
Bayle,  "frighted  at  nothing."  Exquisitely  sertsi-' 
live  and  timid  by  constitution,  he  was  from  his 
earliest  years  obliged  to  bend  to  the  inflexible  rule 
iof  duty,  and  thus  became  habituated  to  self-sacri- 
^  fice.  When  God  called  him  by  his  grace  to  the 
knowledge  of  the  truth  and  power  of  the  gospel, 
he  took  up  his  cross  to  follow  Jesus,  suffering  the 
loss  of  all  things  and  not  counting  his  life  dear 
unto  him.  The  storm  of  persecution  was  then  at 
its  height.  Its  fiery  bolts  were  spreading  conster- 
nation and  alarm  throughout  all  France.  The  Par- 
liament was  on  the  watch.  The  spies  of  the  Sor- 
bonne  and  of  the  monks  were  found  creeping  into 
churches  and  colleges,  and  even  into  the  recesses  of 
private  dwellings.  The  gens-d^armes  patrolled  the 
highways  to  hunt  down  every  favorer  of  the  Re- 
form.* Then  it  was  that  Calvin  enlisted  as  a  good 
soldier  under  the  Captain  of  salvation,  buckled  on 
the  armor  of  God  and  threw  himself  boldly  on  the 
Lord's  side.  His  whole  subsequent  course  prove^s 
that  through  the  grace  of  God  he  was  valorous  even 

*  See  D'Aubign^'s  History  of  the  Reformation,  vol.  iii.,  p.  643, 
English  edition. 
2 


18  JOHN  CALVIN. 

to  daring.  At  the  risk  of  his  life  he  ventured  back 
to  Paris  in  1532,  in  the  very  midst  of  abounding 
persecution,  that  he  might  defend  the  truth.  While 
the  whole  city  of  Geneva  was  in  a  ferment  of  rage, 
he  hesitated  not  to  suspend  the  celebration  of  the 
communion,  and,  when  publicly  debarred  the  use 
of  the  pulpit,  to  appear  in  it  as  usual.  When  the 
plague  had  broken  out  and  was  carrying  death  and 
destruction  around,  Calvin  was  found  ready  to  offer 
himself  as  a  chaplain  to  its  infected  victims.  Dur- 
ing his  contests  with  the  Libertine  faction  he  fre- 
quently attended  the  summons  of  the  senate  when 
his  life  was  exposed  to  imminent  danger  from  the 
swords  of  the  contending  parties,  many  of  whom 
were  anxious  for  an  opportunity,  according  to  their 
summary  mode  of  punishment,  to  throw  him  into 
the  Rhone.  In  the  year  1553,  through  the  influ- 
ence of  Bertelier,  the  grand  council  of  two  hundred 
decreed  that  all  cases  of  excommunication  should 
be  vested  in  the  senate,  from  which  body  Bertelier 
obtained  two  letters  of  absolution.  The  resolution 
of  Calvin,  however,  was  taken,  and  he  was  not  to 
be  daunted.  He  first  procured  the  senate  to  be 
called  together,  stated  his  views  and  his  determina- 
tion, and  endeavored,  but  in  vain,  to  induce  them 
to  revoke   their   indulgence   granted  to  Bertelier, 


EMINEyT  AMONG  REFORMERS.  19 

He  received  for  answer  that  "  the  senate  changed 
nothing  in  their  former  decision."     After  preach- 
ing, however,  on  the  Sunday  morning  previously 
to  the  administration  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  in  a 
solemn  tone  and  with  uplifted  hand  he  uttered  se- 
vere  denunciations  against  profaners  of  the  holy 
mysteries ;  "  And  for  my  own  part,"  said  he,  "  after 
•  the  example  of  Chrysostom,  I  avow  that  I  will  suffer. 
'  myself  to  be  slain  at  the  table  rather  than  allow  this 
'  hand  to  deliver  the  sacred  symbols  of  the  Lord's 
I  body  and  blood  to  adjudged  despisers  of   God." 
This  was  uttered  with  such  authority  and  produced 
such  an  effect  that  Perrin  himself  immediately  whis- 
pered to  Bertelier  that  he  must  not  present  himself 
as  a  communicant.     He  accordingly  withdrew ;  and 
the  sacred   ordinance,  says  Beza,  "  was  celebrated 
with  a  profound  silence  and  under  a  solemn  awe  in 
all  present,  as  if  the  Deity  himself  had  been  visible 
among  them." 

But  there  was  another  scene  which  occurred  amid 
those  factious  commotions  by  which  Calvin  was  con- 
tinually distressed  which  deserves  to  be  immortal- 
ized. Perrin  and  others  having  been  censured  by 
the  consistory,  and  failing  to  obtain  redress  from  the 
senate,  appealed  to  the  council  of  two  hundred 
Disorder,  violence  and  sedition    reigned   through- 


20  JOHN  CALVIN. 

out  the  city.  On  the  day  preceding  the  assembly 
Calvin  told  his  brethren  that  he  apprehended  tu- 
mult, and  that  it  was  his  intention  to  be  present. 
Accordingly,  he  and  his  colleagues  proceeded  to 
the  council-house,  where  they  arrived  without 
being  noticed.  Before  long  they  heard  loud  and 
confused  clamors,  which  were  constantly  increas- 
ing. The  crowd  heaved  to  and  fro  with  all  the 
violence  of  a  stormy  ocean  chafed  into  ungovern- 
able fury  and  ready  to  overwhelm  its  victims  in 
destruction.  Calvin,  however,  like  Csesar,  cast 
himself,  alone  and  unprotected,  into  the  midst  of 
the  seditious  multitude.  They  stood  aghast  at  his 
fearless  presence.  His  friends  rallied  around  him. 
Lifting  his  voice,  he  told  them  he  came  to  oppose 
his  body  to  their  swords,  and,  if  blood  was  to  flow, 
to  offer  his  as  the  first  sacrifice.  Rushing  between 
the  parties,  who  were  on  the  point  of  drawing  their 
swords  in  mutual  slaughter,  he  obtained  a  hearing, 
addressed  them  in  a  long  and  earnest  oration,  and 
so  completely  subdued  their  evil  purposes  that  peace, 
order  and  tranquillity  were  immediately  restored. 

Such,  by  the  grace  of  God,  was  the  weak,  tim- 
orous and  shrinking  Calvin.  Firm  as  the  moun- 
tains of  his  country,  he  stood  unmoved  amid  tho 
storms  that  beat  around  him.     He  lifted  his  soul 


f 

EMINENT  AMONG  REFORMERS.  21 

undaunted  above  those  mists  which  to  all  othere 
shrouded  the  future  in  terrific  gloom,  and,  exercis- 
ing a  faith  strong  in  the  promises  of  God,  could 
behold  afar  off  the  triumphs  of  the  cause.  As 
the  twelve  apostles,  when  left  to  themselves,  fled 
like  frightened  sheep  at  the  approach  of  danger, 
when  endued  with  power  from  on  high  were  made 
bold  as  lions,  so  did  the  perfect  love  of  Christ's 
truth  and  cause  cast  out  all  fear  from  the  bosom 
of  Calvin.  Even  in  point  of  courage,  therefore, 
he  was  not  inferior  to  the  very  chiefest  of  Re- 
formers. But  in  learning,  in  sound  and  correct 
judgment,  in  prudence  and  moderation,  in  saga- 
city and  penetration,  in  system  and  order,  in  cul- 
tivation and  refinement  of  manners,  in  the  depth 
and  power  of  his  intellect,  Calvin  shone  forth 
amid  the  splendid  galaxy  of  illustrious  Reform- 
ers a  star  of  the  first  magnitude  and  brightest 
lustre. 

Such  was  the  man  whose  life  and  character  I 
now  review. 


CHAPTER    III. 

THE  GENIUS  AND  THE  WOEKS  OF  CALVIN. 

TN  his  early  youth  Calvin  manifested  that  genius 
■*-  and  eloquence  which  characterized  him  as  a 
man.  The  same  intensity  of  will,  the  same  rapid- 
ity of  thought,  the  same  retentiveness  of  memory, 
the  same  comprehensiveness  of  judgment,  which 
enabled  him  to  discharge  the  inconceivable  labors 
of  his  maturer  years,  gave  him  an  easy  victory 
over  all  his  competitors  for  college  fame;  so  that 
it  became  necessary  to  withdraw  him  from  the 
ordinary  ranks  and  to  introduce  him  singly  to  \ 
the  higher  walks  of  learning.  In  his  twenty- 
third  year  he  published  a  commentary  on  Seneca's  ' 
treatise  De  dementia,  full  of  learning  and  elo- 
quence. In  his  twenty-fourth  year  we  find  him 
at  Paris  preparing  orations  to  be  delivered  by 
the  rector  of  the  university  and  homilies  to  be 
recited  to  their  people  by  the  neighboring  clergy. 
During  the   next   year  he  gave  to  the  world  his 

22 


GENIUS  AND    WORKS.  23 

work  on  the  sleep  of  the  soul  after  death,  in 
which  he  manifests  an  intimate  acquaintance  with 
the  Scriptures  and  with  the  works  of  the  early 
fathers.  Thus,  in  the  morning  of  his  life,  before 
others  had  awakened  from  the  dreams  of  boyhood 
or  realized  the  responsibilities  of  raaturer  life,  he 
was  pronounced  by  Scaliger,  who  was  indisposed 
to  give  praise  to  any,  to  be  the  most  learned  man/ 
in  Europe.  He  was  only  in  his  twenty-sixth 
year  when  he  published  the  first  edition  of  the 
Institutes  of  the  Christian  Religion,  with  an  ad- 
dress to  the  persecuting  king  of  France  which 
has  ever  been  esteemed  a  production  unrivaled 
for  classic  purity,  force  of  argument  and  per- 
suasive eloquence.  Designed  as  a  defence  of  the 
calumniated  Reformers  and  an  exposure  of  the 
base  injustice,  tyranny  and  corruption  of  their 
persecutors,  this  work  became  the  bulwark  of  the 
Reformation  and  the  stronghold  of  its  adherents. 
It  was  made  the  confession  of  faith  of  a  large 
portion  of  the  Protestant  world  and  the  text-book 
of  every  student.  It  was  recommended  by  a  con- 
vocation held  at  Oxford  to  the  general  study  of 
the  English  nation,  and  long  continued  to  be  the 
standard  work  in  theology  in  the  English  uni- 
versities.     The  pope  makes  it  one  of  his  anath- 


24  JOHN  QALVIN. 

ematizing  charges  against  Queen  Elizabeth  that  the 
impious  mysteries  and  institutes,  according  to  Cal- 
vin, are  received  and  observed  by  herself,  and  even 
enjoined  upon  all  her  subjects  to  be  obeyed.*  Ac- 
cording to  Schultingius,  the  English  gave  these 
Institutes  a  preference  to  the  Bible.  "The  bishops," 
he  says,t  *'  ordered  all  the  ministers  that  they 
should  learn  them  almost  to  a  word,  that  they 
should  be  kept  in  all  the  churches  for  public  use." 
He  informs  us  also  that  they  were  studied  in  both 
the  universities ;  that  in  Scotland  the  students  of 
divinity  began  by  reading  these  Institutes;  that 
at  Heidelberg,  Geneva,  Lausanne,  and  in  all  the 
Calvinistic  universities,  these  Institutes  were  public- 
ly taught  by  the  professors ;  that  in  Holland  min- 
isters, civilians  and  the  common  people,  even  the 
coachman  and  the  sailor,  studied  this  work  with 
great  diligence;  that,  esteeming  it  as  a  pearl  of 
great  price,  they  had  it  bound  and  gilt  in  the  most 
elegant  manner;  and  that  it  was  appealed  to  as 
a  standard  on  all  theological  questions.  Accord- 
ing to  this  writer,  these  Institutes  were  considered 
more  dangerous  to  the  cause  of  the  })apacy  than 
all  the  other  writings  of  the  Reformers. 

^^"  Burnet's  History  of  the  Befonnalion,  vol.  ii.,  p.  347. 
t  Waterman's  Life,  p.  137. 


OENIUS  AND    WORKS.  25 

As  an  author  Calvin's  fame  will  go  on  brighten- 
ing more  and  more.  The  Latin  language  was  in  his 
day  the  language  of  the  learned  and  of  books.  But 
"  What  Latin  ?''  asks  Monsieur  Villers.  "  A  jar- 
gon bearing  all  the  blemishes  of  eleven  centuries  of 
corruption  and  bad  taste."  *  And  yet  the  French 
encyclopsedists  testify  that  "  Calvin  wrote  in  Latin 
as  well  as  is  possible  in  a  dead  language,"  f  and  an 
Episcopalian  of  Oxford  in  1839  has  said  that  ^*  for 
majesty  when  the  subject  required  it,  for  purity, 
and,  in  short,  every  quality  of  a  perfect  style,  it 
would  not  suffer  by  a  comparison  with  that  of  Cse- 
sar,  Livy  or  Tacitus."  | 

The  modern  idioms  also  were  at  that  time  in  the 
same  uncultivated,  rude  state  into  which  long  want 
of  use  had  plunged  them.  Now,  what  Luther  did 
for  the  German,  Calvin  accomplished  for  the  French 
language;  he  emancipated,  he  renovated — nay,  he 
created — it.  The  French  of  Calvin  became  event- 
ually the  French  of  Protestant  France,  and  is 
still  admired  for  its  purity  by  the  most  skillful 
critics.  § 

*  Villers's  Essay  on  the  Reformation,  p.  238. 
t  Article  "Geneva." 

I  Preface  to  Calvin's  Commentary  on  the  Psalms,  vol.  i.,  p.  18. 
^  D'Aubign^,  iii.  639,  641 ;  French  Encydopadia  as  above ; 
Taylor's  Biography  of  the  Age  of  Elizabeth,  ii.,  p.  17. 


26  JOHN  CALVIN. 

Of  his  Institutes  we  have  already  spoken — "  the 
most  remarkable  literary  work  to  which  the  Refor- 
mation gave  birth.'^  Not  less  valued  was  his  Gat- 
eckmrij  now  too  much  neglected  and  unstudied.  He 
published  it  in  French  and  Latin.  It  was  soon 
translated  into  the  German,  English,  Dutch,  Scotch, 
Spanish,  Greek  and  Hebrew  languages,  and  was 
made  one  of  the  standards  of  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land, the  basis  of  the  early  Catechism  in  the 
Church  of  England,  and  the  model  of  the  Cat- 
echism published  by  the  Westminster  Assembly 
of  Divines.* 

The  judgment  of  his  great  opponent,  Arminius, 
upon  Calvin's  merits  as  a  commentator  has  been 
sustained  by  the  verdict  of  three  centuries  and  his 
present  advancing  reputation.  Arminius  says : 
"  After  the  Holy  Scriptures,  I  exhort  the  students  to 
read  the  commentaries  of  Calvin ;  for  I  tell  them  that 
he  is  incomparable  in  the  interpretation  of  Script- 
ure, and  that  his  commentaries  ought  to  be  held  in 
greater  estimation  than  all  that  is  delivered  to  us 
in  the  writings  of  the  ancient  Christian  fathers; 
so  that,  in  a  certain  eminent  spirit  of  prophecy,  I 

*  Waterman,  35 ;  Waterman's  edition,  Hartford,  1815 ;  Irving's 
Confessions  of  Faith,  Appendix,  and  Preface,  p.  124;  and  Neai's 
Puritans,  ii.  224. 


GENIUS  AND    WORKS.  27 

give  the  pre-eminence 'to  him  beyond  most  others — 
indeed,  beyond  them  all/'* 

But  the  labors  of  Calvin  were  as  multiplied  and 
arduous  as  his  achievements  were  marvelous.  The 
Genevan  edition  of  his  works  amounts  to  twelve 
folio  volumes.  Besides  these,  there  exist  at  Geneva 
two  thousand  of  liis  sermons  and  lectures,  taken 
down  from  his  mouth  as  he  delivered  them.  He 
was  but  twenty-eight  years  in  the  ministry  alto- 
gether. He  was  always  poor,  so  as  not  to  be  able 
to  have  many  books.  The  sufferings  of  his  body 
from  headache,  weakness  and  other  complaints  were 
constant  and  intense ;  so  that  he  was  obliged  to  re- 
cline on  his  couch  a  part  of  every  day.  It  was 
only  the  remnants  of  his  time  left  from  preaching 
and  correspondence  he  devoted  to  study  and  writ- 
ing. And  yet  every  year  of  his  life  may  be  chron- 
icled by  his  various  works.  In  the  midst  of  con- 
vulsions and  interruptions  of  every  kind  he  pursued 
his  commentaries  on  the  Bible  as  if  sitting  in  the 
most  perfect  calm  and  undisturbed  repose.  His 
labors  were  indeed  incredible  and  beyond  all  com- 
parison. He  allowed  himself  no  recreation  what-' 
ever.     He  preached  and  wrote  with  headaches  that 

*  In  Scott,  497.     See  the  similar  judgment  of   Scaliger   in 
Bayle,  265,  and   Beza,  120,  204. 


28  JOHN  CALVIN. 

would,  says  Beza,  have  confined  any  (ither  person 
to  bed. 

Calvin  was  a  member  of  the  sovereign  council  of 
Geneva,  and  took  a  great  part  in  the  deliberations 
as  a  politicaii  and  legislator.  He  corrected  the  civ- 
il code  of  his  adopted  country.  He  corresponded 
with  Protestants  throughout  Europe  both  on  relig- 
ious subjects  and  on  state  affairs,  for  all  availed 
themselves  of  his  experience  in  difficult  matters. 
He  wrote  innumerable  letters  of  encouragement 
and  consolation  to  those  who  were  persecuted,  im- 
prisoned, condemned  to  death  for  the  gospel's  sake. 
He  was  a  constant  preacher,  delivering  public  dis- 
courses every  day  in  the  week,  and  on  Sunday 
preaching  twice.  He  was  professor  of  theology, 
and  delivered  three  lectures  a  week.  He  was  pres- 
ident of  consistory,  and  addressed  remonstrances  or 
pronounced  other  ecclesiastical  sentences  against 
delinquent  church-members.  He  was  the  head  of 
the  pastors,  and  every  Friday,  in  an  assembly  call- 
ed the  congregation,  he  pronounced  before  them  a 
long  discourse  on  the  duties  of  the  evangelical  min- 
istry. His  door  was  constantly  open  to  refugees 
from  France,  England,  Poland,  Germany  and  Italy, 
who  flocked  to  Geneva,  and  he  organized  for  these 
exiled    Protestants    special   parishes.       His   corre- 


GENIUS  AND   WORKS.  29 

sp^ndence,  commentaries,  controversial  writings,  ote., 
would  form  annually,  during  the  period  of  thirty- 
one  years,  between  two  and  three  octavo  volumes ; 
and  yet  he  did  not  reach  the  age  of  fifty-five. 
When  laid  aside  by  disease  from  preaching  he  dic- 
tated numberless  letters,  revised  for  the  last  time 
his  Christian  Institutes,  almost  rewrote  his  Oommen- 
tary  on  Isaiah,  frequently  observing  that  "  nothing 
)  was  so  painful  to  him  as  his  present  idle  life."  And 
when  urged  by  his  friends  to  forbear  he  would  re- 
ply, "  Would  you  have  my  Lord  to  find  me  idle 
when  he  cometh  ?"  "  Oh,  the  power  of  Christian 
faith  and  of  the  human  will !  Calvin  did  all  these 
things — he  did  more  than  twenty  eminent  doctors — 
and  he  had  feeble  health,  a  frail  body  and  died  at 
the  age  of  fifty-five  years.  We  bow  reverently 
before  this  incomparable  activity,  this  unparalleled 
devotion  of  Calvin  to  the  service  of  his  divine 
Master." 


CHAPTER    IV. 

CALVIN  VINDICATED  FROM  THE  CHARGE  OF  AMBITION. 
A.ND  HIS  TRUE  GREATNESS  AND  WONDERFUL  INFLU- 
ENCE    SHOWN. 

f^  IFTED  with  such  powers  of  mind  and  stored 
^^^  with  such  treasures  of  knowledge,  who  can 
question  the  sincerity  of  Calvin's  adherence  to 
the  principles  of  the  Reformation?  He  has  been 
charged,  however,  with  ambitious  motives  and  with 
aspiring  to  a  new  popedom.  Shameless  calumny ! 
With  the  pathway  to  honor,  emolument  and  fame 
opened  to  him,  did  he  not  choose,  like  Moses, 
"  rather  to  suffer  with  the  people  of  God  than  to 
enjoy  the  pleasures  of  sin  for  a  season"?  Did  he 
not  resign  the  benefices  which  he  held,  and  which 
by  covert  conduct  he  might  still  have  retained,  and 
throw  himself,  poor  and  unpatronized,  among  the 
houseless  wanderers  who  were  everywhere  spoken 
against  as  not  worthy  to  live?  Did  he  not  design 
to  spend  his  time  in  retirement,  as  deeming  him- 
self unfit  to  take  part  in  the  noble  strife  ?     Was 

30 


TRUE  GREATNESS.  31 

he  not  led  to  visit  Geneva  by  the  invisible  hand 
of  God,  who  had  obstructed  his  route  through 
Dauphiny  and  Savoy  to  Basle  or  Strasburg,  where 
he  meant  to  retire  ?  Was  it  not  after  many  refusals 
and  the  extremest  urgency  he  consented  to  remain 
in  that  city  ?  And  when  appointed  professor  of 
divinity  by  the  consistory  and  magistrates,  did 
he  not  earnestly  decline  the  office  of  pastor,  which 
they  also  insisted  upon  his  undertaking?  When 
banished  from  that  place,  did  he  not  again  seek 
retirement  and  with  manifest  reluctance  resume 
the  duties  of  professor  and  of  pastor,  which  Bu- 
cer,  Capito,  Hedio  and  the  senate  of  Strasburg 
conferred  upon  him  ?  And  when  the  whole  city 
of  Geneva  entreated  his  return  among  them,  did 
he  not  say  that  "  the  farther  he  advanced  the  more 
sensible  he  was  how  arduous  a  charge  is  that  of 
governing  a  church,  and  that  there  was  no  place 
under  heaven  he  more  dreaded  than  Geneva*'? 
How  did  he  praise  and  exalt  Melanchthon  and 
Luther !  *  How  did  he  bear  with  their  opposition 
to  his  views,  and  their  silence  when  he  wrote  to 
them  in  friendship !  Did  he  not,  when  he  had 
succeeded  in  founding  the  college  at  Geneva,  prefer 
Beza  to  the  presidency,  and  himself  become  a  pro- 
*  Scott's  Continuation  of  Milner,  vol.  iii.  175,  382,  387,  414. 


32  JOHN  CALVIN. 

fessor  under  him?*  Did  he  not  so  late  as  1553, 
in  a  letter  to  the  minister  of  Zurich,  call  Fare! 
"  the  father  of  the  liberties  of  Geneva  and  the 
father  of  that  church"?  Ambitious!  "A  most 
extraordinary  charge,"  says  Beza,  "to  be  brought 
against  a  man  who  chose  his  kind  of  life,  and  in 
this  state,  in  this  church,  which  I  might  truly 
call  the  very  seat  of  poverty."  No ;  the  love  of 
truth  and  of  the  cause  of  Christ  was  the  master- 
passion  of  his  soul.  He  realized  what  millions 
only  profess,  and  judging,  with  the  apostle,  that 
if  Christ  died  for  all,  then  were  all  dead,  and  that 
he  thus  died  that  they  who  are  made  alive  by  his 
Spirit  should  not  henceforth  live  unto  themselves, 
he  consecrated  his  body,  soul  and  spirit  unto  God. 
"  Since,"  says  he,  "  I  remember  that  I  am  not  my 
own  nor  at  my  own  disposal,  I  give  myself  up, 
tied  and  bound,  as  a  sacrifice  to  God."  When, 
therefore,  he  was  driven  from  Geneva  by  a  blinded 
faction,  amid  the  lamentations  of  his  whole  flock, 
he  could  say,  "Had  I  been  in  the  service  of  men, 
this  would  have  been  a  poor  reward;  but  it  is  well: 
I  have  served  Him  who  never  fails  to  repay  his 
servants  whatever  he  has  promised."  When  the 
people  of  Strasburg  consented  for  a  season  to  lend 

*  Scott's  Continuation  of  Milner,  vol.  iii.,  p.  466. 


TRUE  GREATNESS.  i  33 

his  services  to  the  people  of  Geneva,  they  insisted 
on  his  retaining  the  privileges  of  a  citizen  and  the 
stipend  they  had  assigned  him  while  resident  among 
them.  Was  it  ambition  that  led  Calvin  resolutely 
to  decline  the  generous  oifer?  Was  it  ambition 
that  led  him  to  settle  at  Geneva,  where  his 
stipend,  which  was  one  hundred  crowns  a  year, 
barely  supported  his  existence,  and  which,  never- 
theless, he  pertinaciously  refused  to  have  increas- 
ed ?  Did  he  not  for  years  abstain  from  all  animal 
food  at  dinner,  rarely  eating  anything  after  break- 
fast till  his  stated  hour  for  supper?  and  was  not 
the  whole  amount  of  his  remaining  property,  in- 
cluding his  library,  which  sold  high,  less  than  three 
hundred  crowns  ?  Let  the  infidel  Bayle,  who  was 
struck  with  astonishment  by  these  facts,  put  to 
silence  the  ignorance  of  foolish  men.* 

The  charge  of  ambition  is  founded  upon  the 
innate  and  surpassing  greatness  of  Calvin.  An 
exile  from  his  country,  without  money,  without 
friends,  he  raised  himself  by  merit  alone  to  a 
dominion  over  the  minds  of  men.  His  throne 
was  in  the  hearts  of  those  who  knew  him ;  his 
sceptre,  truth ;  his  laws,  the  silent  influence  of 
principle.     Consider  the  difficulties  which  he  en- 

^Bayle's  Dictionary,  art.  "Calvin,  BB.,"  and  Scott,  489. 
3 


34  JOHN  CALVIN. 

countered  at  Geneva.  When  he  arrived  at  that 
place,  in  1536,  the  city  had  neither  religious  nor 
political  organization.  Calvin  undertook  the  task 
of  giving  it  both.*  But  in  order  to  do  so  he  had 
first  lo  cleanse  the  Augean  stable,  for  to  this  the 
demoralized  condition  of  Geneva  might  well  be 
compared.  The  long  reign  of  ignorance  and  su- 
perstition, the  extreme  corruption  of  the  Romish 
clergy,  the  relaxation  of  manners  consequent  upon 
intestine  feuds  and  open  war,  the  licentiousness, 
anarchy  and  insubordination  resulting  from  the 
first  excesses  of  unrestrained  freedom,  the  disor- 
ders occasioned  by  party  spirit  and  factious  dem- 
agogues, and  the  secret  attachment  of  many  to  the 
discarded  system  of  popery, — these  were  causes, 
sufficient  to  lead  to  the  unparalleled  dissoluteness 
of  a  city  where  great  numbers  of  houses  of  ill- 
fame  were  recognized  and  licensed  by  the  magis- 
trates, with  a  regular  female  superior,  who  bore 
the  name  of  Reine  du  Bordel.  Calvin  proved 
himself  to  be  not  only  a  theologian  of  the  highest 
order,  but  also  a  politician  of  astonishing  sagacity. 
Morals  became  pure;  the  laws  of  the  state  were 
revised  and  thoroughly  changed ;  the  ecclesiasti- 
cal tribunals  were  made  independent  of  the  civil, 
*  Dr.  Taylor's  Biography  of  the  Age  of  Elizabeth,  vol.  ii.,  p.  24. 


TBVE  GREATNESS.  36 

and  a  system  of  the  strictest  discipline  established  ; 
the  sect  of  the  Libertines  was  overthrown;  the 
most  powerful  factions  were  dispersed ;  the  en- 
emies of  truth  and  purity,  though  often  triumph- 
ant and  always  violent,  were  made  to  lick  the 
dust;  so  that  the  wickedness  of  the  wicked  came 
to  an  end  and  righteousness  prevailed.  The  effects 
of  Calvin's  influence,  says  a  recent  and  prejudiced 
historian,  "  after  the  lapse  of  ages,  are  still  visible 
in  the  industry  and  intellectual  tone  of  Geneva."  * 
From  having  been  a  small  and  unimportant  town 
Geneva  became  the  focus  of  light,  the  centre  of 
attraction  and  the  source  of  incalculable  influence 
upon  the  destinies  of  Europe  and  the  world.  Cal- 
vin's seminary  supplied  teachers  and  ministers  to 
most  of  the  Reformed  states  of  Europe.  Geneva 
was  honored  with  the  title  of  "  the  Mother  of  Prot-  ' 
estantism."  Lodgings  could  with  difficulty  be 
found  for  the  multitude  of  students  that  came  to  ^ 
sit  at  the  feet  of  the  man  whom  Melanchthon  call- 
ed "  the  divine."  It  was  to  this  '^  metropolis  of 
Presbyterianism "  that  all  the  proscribed  exiles 
who  were  driven  from  other  countries  by  the 
intolerance  of  popery  "came  to  get  intoxicated 
with  Presbytery  and  republicanism,"  to  carry  back 
*  History  of  Switzerland  (London,  1832),  p.  227. 


/ 


36  JOHN  CALVIN. 

with  them  those  seeds  which  have  sprung  up  iu 
the  republic  of  Holland,  the  commonwealth  of 
England,  the  glorious  revolution  of  1688  and  our 
own  American  confederation. 

Would  you  see  the  amazing  power  and  influ- 
ence of  Calvin,  read  the  history  of  his  triumph 
over  Bolsec,  one  of  those  hydras  of  faction  that 
successively  shot  up  their  re  vegetating  heads  in 
Geneva.*  Behold  Troillet,  another  of  his  en- 
emies, when  about  to  die,  sending  for  Calvin  that 
he  might  confess  his  faults,  declaring  that  he  could 
not  die  in  peace  without  obtaining  his  forgive- 
ness. Behold  him  at  Berne  debating  against 
Castalio  and  others  with  such  power  that  his 
opponents  were  henceforth  excluded  from  that  can- 
ton. Thus,  like  another  Hercules,  armed  with  the 
simple  club  of  God's  holy  word,  did  he  destroy  the 
numerous  monsters  who  threatened  to  overthrow  the 
truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus. 

*  Scott's  Milner,  iii.  404,  and  Waterman,  70.  "Those,"  says 
Rousseaii,  "  who  regard  Calvin  as  a  mere  theologian  are  ill- 
acqnainted  with  the  extent  of  his  genius.  The  preparation  of 
oar  wise  edicts,  in  which  he  had  a  great  part,  does  him  as 
nincli  lionor  as  his  Institutes.  Whatever  revolution  time  may 
effect  in  our  worship,  while  the  love  of  country  and  liberty 
shall  exist  among  us  the  memory  of  that  great  man  shall 
never  cease  to  be  blessed." 


TRUE  GREATNESS.  37 

How  wonderful  was  the  influence,  under  God,  of 
this  single  man !  The  Reformed  churches  in  France 
adopted  his  confession  of  faith  and  were  modeled 
after  the  ecclesiastical  order  of  Geneva.  To  him 
England  is  indebted  for  her  Articles,  for  a  purified 
liturgy  and  for  all  her  psalmody.*  To  him  Scot- 
land owes  her  Knox,  her  Buchanan  and  her  Mel- 
ville, her  ecclesiastical  system,  and  all  that  has 
made  her  proudly  eminent  among  the  nations  of 
the  earth.  To  him  Northern  Ireland  is  indebted 
for  the  industry,  manufactures,  education,  religion 
and  noble  spirit  of  independence  and  freedom  which 
she  received  from  her  first  settlers,  the  followers  of 
Calvin. t  To  his  letters,  dedication  and  exhorta- 
tions every  nation  of  any  eminence  in  his  day  was 
accustomed  to  pay  profound  respect.  These  writ- 
ings had  a  salutary  influence  even  upon  the  Romish 
Church.  Her  shame  was  excited,  abuses  were  aban- 
doned, discipline  enforced  and  the  necessity  of  a 
reformation  confessed.  Nor  was  this  influence 
merely  ecclesiastical  or  political.  The  increase  of 
his  own  church  was,  we  are  told,  wonderful,  and 
he  could  say,  even  during  his  life,  "  I  have  number- 
less spiritual  children  throughout  the  world."     His 

*Sibson  in  Beza's  Life,  Am.  ed.,  pp.  Ill,  112. 

t  Waterman,  p.  34  ;  Scott,  op.  ciL,  370;  Beza's  Life,  p.  101. 


38  JOEN  CALVIN. 

contemporaneous  reputation  was  even  greater  than 
his  posthumous  fame,  because  all  parties  united  in 
rendering  him  honor.  Many  Romanists,  says  Bayle, 
"  would  do  him  justice  if  they  durst.''  Scaliger 
said  he  was  "  the  greatest  wit  the  world  had  seen 
since  the  apostles;''  while  the  Romish  bishop  of 
Valence  called  him  "  the  greatest  divine  in  the 
world."  *  The  Romanists,  too,  have  been  forced 
to  acknowledge  the  falsity  of  their  infamous  cal- 
umnies published  against  his  morals. f  Such  was 
the  terror  he  had  inspired  in  this  great  apostasy 
that  when  a  false  report  of  his  death  was  circulat- 
ed, they  decreed  a  public  procession  and  returned 
thanks  to  God  in  their  churches  for  his  death. J 
Every  pious,  eminent  and  learned  Reformer  was 
his  friend.  It  was  the  power  of  his  reputation, 
proclaiming  abroad  their  own  condemnation,  that 
led  the  General  Assembly  of  Geneva  to  adopt  a 
decree  for  his  return;  to  acknowledge  the  great 
injury  they  had  done  him  and  implore  forgive- 
ness of  almighty  God ;  to  send  an  honorable  dep- 
utation to  him  to  persuade  him  to  accept  their  in- 
vitation; to  go  forth  in  throngs  to  welcome  his 
return;  and  to  allow  him  a  secretary  at  the  public 

*Bayle'8  Dictioriary,  vol.  ii.,  p.  268,  note  x. 

fibid,,  p.  265,  and  note  ii.  ;}:  ^Vatermau,  p.  135. 


TRUE  GREATNESS.  39 

expense.  In  short,  it  would  be  no  difficult  matter, 
as  has  been  said,  to  prove  that  there  is  not  a  par- 
allel instance  upon  record  of  any  single  individual 
being  equally  and  so  unequivocally  venerated  for 
the  union  of  wisdom  and  piety,  both  in  England 
and  by  a  large  body  of  the  foreign  churches,  as 
John  Calvin. 

The  full  extent  to  which  the  living  influence  of 
Calvin  extended  is  only  now  being  fully  demon- 
strated. "  A  few  days  before  he  expired,  in  1564, 
Calvin  was  in  his  library  with  Theodore  de  Beza, 
and,  showing  him  the  immense  correspondence  he 
had  kept  up  for  above  a  quarter  of  a  century  with 
the  most  evangelical  Christians  and  the  highest 
personages  of  Europe,  proposed  to  him  to  publish 
it  for  the  Church's  instruction.  This  wish  of  the 
dying  Reformer  was  but  tardily  and  partially  ac- 
complished in  the  sixteenth  century ;  but  a  literary 
man  and  a  Christian  of  our  days,  M.  Jules  Bon- 
net, Docteur  ^  Lettres,  has  undertaken,  after  the 
lapse  of  three  hundred  years,  to  fulfill  Calvin's 
wish ;  and  five  years  spent  in  traveling  in  Switzer- 
land, in  France  and  in  Germany,  with  careful  stud- 
ies and  researches  in  the  libraries  of  these  different 
countries,  have  enabled  him  to  form  a  collection 
which  will  throw  a  fresh  light  on  the  history  of 


40  JOHN  CALVIN. 

the  Reformation.  This  correspondence,  which  ter- 
minates only  on  Calvin's  deathbed,  embraces  every 
period  of  his  life,  and  contains,  at  the  same  time, 
the  familiar  effusions  of  friendship,  grave  theological 
statements  and  elevated  views  of  the  politics  of 
Protestantism.  We  see  in  it  the  Reformer  repiwv- 
ing  with  all  respect  and  dignity  the  queen  of  Na- 
varre, Marguerite  de  Valois,  sister  of  Francis  I. ; 
exhorting  the  young  king  of  England,  Edward  VI., 
as  a  Christian  Mentor  speaking  to  his  Telemachus ; 
conversing  with  Melanchthon,  Bullinger,  Knox, 
Conde,  Coligny,  the  duchess  of  Ferrara,  daughter 
of  Louis  XII.,  Jeanne  d'Albret,  mother  of  Henry 
IV. ;  we  see  him  withstanding  Libertines,  strength- 
ening martyrs,  upholding  all  the  churches. 

"This  important  publication  appears  to  be*  a 
remarkable  event  in  the  history  of  the  Church 
and  of  theology.  As  documents,  these  letters  will 
compel  the  odious  calumnies  which  have  been  cir- 
culated to  yield  to  the  impartial  witness  of  truth. 
We  shall  learn  from  Calvin's  own  mouth  what  his 
thoughts,  wishes  and  pursuits  were,  and  we  shall 
find  in  his  most  familiar  writings  the  secret  of  the 
revolution  of  which  he  was,  in  this  world,  the 
instrument.  Certainly,  Luther  is  the  first  Reform- 
*Says  IVAubign^. 


TRUE  GREATNESS.  41 

er;  but  if  Luther  laid  the  foundatiou,  Calvin  built 
thereon.  If,  on  the  one  hand,  we  consider  the 
Lutheran  Reformation  imperfect  in  some  respects, 
and,  on  the  other,  the  Calvinistic  imperfect  also, 
I  agree  to  it,  but  powerful,  more  complete,  better 
organized  and  full  of  action.  If  we  compare  the 
Lutheran  nations  of  Germany,  rich  in  intelligence, 
in  missionary  zeal,  but  who  are  still  far  from  un- 
derstanding and  practicing  some  questions,  in  par- 
ticular that  of  religious  liberty,  with  the  nations 
which  have  passed  chiefly  under  Calvin's  influence 
— Holland,  Scotland,  England,  the  United  States, 
these  free  people,  some  of  whom  stretch  their 
sceptres  over  all  seas  and  to  the  very  extremities 
of  the  world — it  is  impossible  not  to  perceive  that 
Luther  and  Calvin  are  the  greatest  men  of  modern 
times,  the  most  eminent  Christians  since  St.  Paul ; 
at  least,  if  we  consider  their  influence  on  the  hu- 
man mind.  How,  then,  could  we  fail  to  study 
the  familiar  letters  of  Calvin,  that  most  powerful 
instrument  in  the  hands  of  the  Lord?" 

This  correspondence  has  already  attracted  the 
attention  of  eminent  men.  In  particular,  the 
Paris  Journal  des  Dibats  has  devoted  an  interest- 
ing article  to  the  subject,  from  which  we  quote 
the  following  lines: 


12  JOHN  CALVIN. 

"Let  us  bring  before  our  minds  the  state  of 
excitement  in  which  the  ardent  disciple  of  the 
Reformation  (Calvin)  must  have  lived  when  from 
Paris,  from  Lyons,  from  Chamb^ry,  he  received 
tidings  of  the  tortures  endured  by  his  coreligionists. 
History  has  not  sufficiently  dwelt  upon  the  atrocity 
of  these  persecutions,  nor  on  the  resignation,  the 
courage,  the  serenity,  of  the  sufferers.  There  are 
there  pages  worthy  of  the  early  ages  of  the  Church; 
and  I  do  not  doubt  that  a  simple  history,  composed 
from  the  documents  and  the  correspondence  of 
the  times,  of  these  sublime  struggles  would  equal 
in  beauty  the  ancient  martyrology.  Calvin's  voice 
in  these  moments  of  trial  attains  a  fullness  and 
an  elevation  truly  marvelous.  His  letters  to  the 
martyrs  of  Lyons,  of  Chamb§ry,  to  the  prisoners 
of  Chatelet,  appear  an  echo  from  the  heroic  days 
of  Christianity — pages  from  the  writings  of  Ter- 
tullian  and  Cyprian.  I  confess  that  before  I  was 
introduced  by  M.  Bonnet  to  this  sanguinary  scene 
of  martyrdom  I  had  neither  understood  the  no- 
bleness of  the  victims  nor  the  cruelty  of  their 
executioners." 


CHAPTER    V. 

CALVIN  VINDICATED  FROM  THE  CHARGE  OF  ILLEBERALITY, 
INTOLERANCE  AND  PERSECUTION. 

"OUT  we  will  pass  on  to  another  view  of  Calvin's 
-'-^  character.  A  truly  great  mind,  conscious  of 
its  own  resources  and  more  fully  sensible  than 
others  of  the  difficulties  surrounding  every  subject 
of  human  speculation,  is  always  calm  and  temper- 
ed with  moderation,  equally  free  from  bigotry  and 
indifference.  It  has  therefore  been  attempted  to 
deprive  Calvin  of  his  glory  by  the  allegation  that 
he  was  illiberal,  extravagant  and  intolerant,  a  fu- 
rious bigot  and  an  extreme  ultraist,  and  the  most 
heartless  of  persecutors.  Such  charges,  in  such 
an  age  and  country  as  this,  are,  it  is  well  known, 
the  most  offensive,  and  the  most  sure  to  cover  with 
obloquy  the  man  and  the  cause  with  which  they  are 
identified.  But  the  very  reverse  we  affirm  to  be 
the  truth  in  this  case.  Calvin  was  liberal  in  his 
views,  moderate   in   his  spirit  and  tolerant  in  liis 

disposition. 

43 


44  JOHN  CALVIN. 

Who  had  endured  greater  calumny,  reproach  and 
hatred  at  the  hands  of  the  Romanists  than  Calvin? 
and  yet  he  allowed  the  validity  of  Romish  baptism 
and  the  claims  of  Rome  to  the  character  of  a 
Church,  not  merely  as  comprising  many  of  God's 
elect  children,  but  as  having  "  the  remains  oi'  a 
Church  continuing  with  them."*  Against  whom 
did  Luther  and  his  coadjutors  utter  severer  lan- 
guage than  against  Calvin  in  reference  to  the  sac- 
ramentarian  controversy?  And  whom  did  Calvin 
more  delight  to  honor  than  Luther  ?  How  did  he 
study  to  cover  the  coals  of  this  pernicious  discord, 
and,  if  possible,  entirely  to  quench  them !  "  I 
wish  you,"  he  says,  writing  to  Bullinger  and  the 
other  pastors  of  Zurich,  against  whom  Luther  had 
used  an  inexcusable  wantonness  of  language,  re- 
proach and  anathema — "  I  wish  you  to  recall  these 
things  to  your  mind,  how  great  a  man  Luther  is, 
and  with  how  great  gifts  he  excels ;  also  with  what 
fortitude  and  constancy  of  mind,  with  what  efficacy 
of  learning,  he  hath  hitherto  labored  and  watched 
to  destroy  the  kingdom  of  Antichrist,  and  to  prop- 
agate, at  the  same  time,  the  doctrine  of  salvation.' 

*"  However  broken  and  deformed  it  may  be,  a  Church  of 
some  sort  exists,"  and,  in  proof  of  this,  he  quotes  2  Thess. 
ii.  4.     See  his  letters  to  Socinus  in  1549,  and  Scott,  400. 


CHARGES  OF  INTOLERANCE.  45 

I  often  say,  If  he  should  call  me  a  devil,  I  hold 
him  in  such  honor  that  I  would  acknowledge  him 
an  eminent  servant  of  God."  .  And  does  not  the 
whole  Protestant  world  now,  including  the  Lu- 
theran Church  itself,  acknowledge  that  the  doctrine 
of  Calvin  on  the  Lord's  Supper  is  true,  scriptural 
and  catholic,  and  that  Luther's  was  as  certainly 
extravagant  and  wrong? 

In  how  many  ways  did  he  endeavor  to  preserve 
the  peace  and  harmony  of  the  churches;  to  lead 
to  compromise  on  matters  of  order  and  discipline ; 
to  encourage  submission  to  ceremonies  and  forms* 
which  were  in  themselves  "  fooleries "  rather  than 
produce  rupture  and  give  occasion  to  the  enemy  to 
blaspheme ;  to  prevent  schism,  disunion  and  aliena- 
tion ;  and  to  bind  together  with  the  cords  of  love 
the  whole  brotherhood  of  the  Reformed  churches  ! 
"  Keep  your  smaller  differences,''  says  he,  addressing 
the  Lutheran  churches ;  "  let  us  have  no  discord 
on  that  account,  but  let  us  march  in  one  solid 
column  under  the  banners  of  the  Captain  of  our 
salvation,  and  with  undivided  counsels  pour  the 
legions  of  the  cross  upon  the  territories  of  dark- 
ness and  of  death."  "  I  should  not  hesitate  to 
cross  ten  seas  if  by  this  means  holy  communion 
might  prevail  among  the  members  of  Christ." 


46  .  JOHN  CALVIN. 

Nothing  can  be  more  liberal  than  his  views  as 
to  the  character  of  other  churches.  "Let  the 
ministers,  therefore/^  he  says,*  "by  whom  God 
permits  the  Church  to  be  governed,  be  what 
they  may ;  if  the  signs  of  the  true  Church  are  per- 
ceived, it  will  be  better  not  to  separate  from  their 
communion.  Nor  is  it  an  objection  that  some  im- 
pure doctrines  are  there  delivered,  for  there  is  scarce 
any  Church  which  retains  none  of  the  remains  of 
ignorance.  It  is  sufficient  for  us  that  the  doctrine 
on  which  the  Church  of  Christ  is  founded  should 
hold  its  place  and  influence."  Hence  has  it  hap- 
pened that  the  most  absurd  attempts  have  been 
made,  even  in  our  own  day,  to  represent  Calvin  as 
the  friend  and  defender  of  prelacy,  which  he  spent 
his  life  in  opposing,  that  liberality  which  made  him 
willing  to  bear  for  a  time  with  the  "  tolerable  fool- 
eries "  of  the  ritual  of  the  English  Church  being 
most  ungenerously  interpreted  into  a  warm  and 
hearty  approval  of  its  unscriptural  forms,  which 
Calvin  as  openly  and  constantly  condemned.f 

*  Letter  to  Farel  from  Strasburg,  1538,  in  Waterman,  pp. 
249,  250. 

fSee  Calvin's  views  on  the  subject  of  episcopacy  fully 
vindicated  and  established  by  Dr.  Miller  in  his  recent  letters 
to  Bishop  Ives,  and  also  in  his  work  on  The  Christian  Ministry, 


CHARGES  OF  INTOLERANCE.  47 

Equally  liberal  and  moderate  was  Calvin  in  his 
doctrinal  tenets.  He  steered  the  safe  and  middle 
course  between  Antinomianism  and  Arminianism, 
and  between  fatalism  and  latitudinarianism.  No 
one  has  ever  been  more  belied.  Garbled  extracts 
have  been  made  to  give  expression  to  views  which 
their  very  context  was  designed  to  overthrow. 
Doctrines  have  been  fathered  upon  Calvin  which 
had  existed  in  the  Church  from  the  apostles'  days 
and  in  every  age,  and  erroneous  opinions,  both 
doctrinal  and  practical,  have  been  attributed  to 
him  which  he  spent  his  life  in  opposing,  and  of 
which  no  confutation  could  be  found  more  tri- 
umphant than  what  is  given  in  his  own  works. 
But,  while  these  are  unknown  or  unread,  youthful 
bigots  and  learned  fools  expose  their  shame  by  re- 
tailing and  perpetuating  stereotyped  abuse.  It 
were  enough  to  repel  all  such  criminations  by  the 
fact  that  for  every  doctrine  Calvin  appeals  to  the 
Bible,  that  he  exalts  the  Bible  above  all  human 
authority,  including  his  own,  that  he  claims  for  all 
men  liberty  of  conscience  and  of  judgment,  and 
that  he  charges  all  men  to  search  the  Scriptures, 
and  thus  to  try  his  doctrines  whether  they  be  of 
God. 

And,  as  this  charge  is  based  by  many  upon  the 


48  JOHN  CALVIN. 

doctrines  of  predestination,  decrees  and  divine 
sovereignty,  let  it  be  remembered  that  these  were 
not  peculiar  to  Calvin,  but  were  common  to  him 
with  the  greatest  divines  of  all  ages  and  with  all 
the  Reformers.  He  was,  too,  a  sub-  and  not  a 
supralapsarian,  teaching  that  God^s  decrees  had 
reference  to  man's  foreseen  condition  and  neces- 
sities and  were  not  the  causes  of  them.  He  does 
not  represent  God  as  arbitrary.  He  utterly  re- 
pudiates and  constantly  opposes  fatalism.*  He 
always  inculcates  the  duty  and  necessity  of  using 
means,  condemning  the  confounding  of  "  necessity 
with  compulsion,'^  and  rejecting  the  supposition 
as  absurd  that  "man's  being  actuated  by  God  is 
incompatible  with  his  being  at  the  same  time  active 
himself."  t  He  teaches  that  the  means  of  grace, 
such  as  exhortations,  precepts  and  reproofs,  are 
not  confined  to  those  who  are  already  pious,  but 
are  God's  means  of  awakening  the  careless,  con- 
verting the  sinner  and  leaving  the  impenitent  with- 
out excuse.  He  teaches,  therefore,  that  sinners 
are  constantly  to  be  urged  to  attendance  upon  God's 
ordinances  and  to  the  diligent  and  prayerful  use 
of  all  the  pieans  by  which  they  may  be  convinced, 

^Institutes,  b.  i.,  ch.  xvi.,  ^^  8,  9. 

■f  Ibid.,  b.  ii.,  ch.  iii.,  ^  5,  and  b.  i.,  ch.  xviii.,  |  2. 


CHARGES  OF  INTOLERANCE.  49 

converted  and  saved.*  He  strenuously  upholds 
the  free  agency  and  responsibility  of  man.!  He 
rejects  the  doctrine  of  reprobation  as  it  is  vulgarly 
believed,  since  he  attributes  the  final  condemnation  • 
of  the  wicked  to  themselves,  and  not  to  any  ar- 
bitrary decree  of  God.J 

While  Calvin  held  firmly  to  the  great  funda- 

*In8tit.y  b.  ii.,  ch.  v.,  §0,  4,  5,  etc. 

t  See  numerous  extracts  in  proof  in  Scott's  Continuation  of 
Milner,  vol.  ii.,  pp.  379,  385,  405,  508,  521,  525. 

J  Instit,  b.  iii.,  ch.  xxiv.,  is  entitled  "  Election  Confirmed " 
{i.  e.,  made  surely  kno\vn  to  us,  Scott,  ibid.,  p.  577)  "  by  the 
divine  calling,  the  just  destruction  to  which  the  reprobate  are 
destined,  procured  by  themselves."  In  the  epistle  of  the  pastors 
of  Geneva  ("  Calv.  Epist."  pp.  63-65,  in  Scott,  406)  we  find  rep- 
robation most  oflensively  spoken  of  as  proceeding  "from  the 
bare  will  and  pleasure  of  God" — 7iudo  Dei  placito — when  no  such 
thing  as  we  should  understand  by  the  words  is  meant.  This 
appears  from  what  presently  follows  :  "  It  is  beyond  controversy 
that  the  perdition  of  men  is  to  be  ascribed  to  their  own  wicked- 
ness," and  that  the  punishments  which  God  inflicts  on  them  are 
"deserved."  It  would  seem  that  all  which  they  mean,  and 
which  Calvin,  generally  at  least,  means,  by  such  obnoxious  lan- 
guage, is  that  among  a  fallen  and  guilty  race  God,  according  to 
his  sovereign  pleasure,  chooses  whom  he  will  to  bring  to  sal- 
vation, and  whom  (according  to  the  title  of  Calvin's  work  on 
predestination)  he  will  "  leave  in  their  ruin."  This  appears  to 
be  the  constant  meaning  of  Calvin  in  the  work  which  he  now 
published  on  these  subjects. 
4 


50  JOHN  CALVIN. 

mental  doctrine  of  imputation  and  to  the  doctrine 
of  a  limited  atonement,  he  nevertheless  rejected  all 
such  views  of  the  sacrifice  of  Christ  as  would  make 
him  to  have  suffered  just  so  much  for  each  one  that 
was  to  be  saved  by  him ;  so  that  if  more  or  fewer 
had  been  appointed  unto  salvation,  he  must  have 
shed  accordingly  more  or  fewer  drops  of  his  pre- 
cious blood  and  suffered  more  or  less  severe  dying 
pangs.  Calvin,  on  the  contrary,  recognized  in  the 
death  of  Christ  a  sacrifice  adequate  to  the  sins  of 
the  whole  world,  and  one  which  made  provision 
for  all  whom  it  should  please  the  Father  to  enable 
and  dispose  to  avail  themselves  of  it.* 

*  On  Kom.  v.  18—"  The  free  gift  came  on  all  men  to  justifi- 
cation of  life  "—he  remarks  :  "  The  apostle  makes  it  a  grace 
or  favor  common  to  all,  because  it  is  proposed  (or  set  forth)  to 
all,  not  because  it  is  actually  extended  to  (conferred  on)  all. 
For,  though  Christ  suffered  for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world, 
and  is  offered  by  the  mercy  of  God  to  all  indifferently  (without 
exception  or  distinction),  yet  all  do  not  embrace  him."  On  1 
John  ii.  2  he  says :  "  Christ  suffered  sufficiently  for  the  whole 
world,  but  efficaciously  only  for  the  elect."  And  finally,  as 
early  as  the  year  1535,  in  a  preface  to  the  New  Testament  in 
French,  he  says:  "At  the  appointed  time  the  Messiah  came 
and  amply  performed  whatever  was  necessary  for  the  redemp- 
tion of  all.  The  benefit  was  not  confined  to  Israel  alone :  it  was 
rather  to  be  extended  to  the  whole  human  race,  because  by 
Christ  alone  the  whole  human  race  was  to  be  reconciled  to  God." 


CHARGES  OF  INTOLERANCE.  51 

He  therefore  fully  and  frequently  proclaims  the 
universality  of  the  gospel  promises  and  the  duty  of 
all  to  receive  and  embrace  them.*  While  he  teaches 
that  original  sin  is  natural,  he  denies  that  it  orig- 
inated from  nature.  "We  deny,"  says  he,  "that 
it  proceeded  from  nature  to  signify  that  it  is  rather 
an  adventitious  quality  or  accident  than  a  substantial 
property,  originally  innate,  yet  we  call  it  natural 
that  no  one  may  suppose  it  to  be  contracted  by 
every  individual  from  corrupt  habit,  whereas  it 
prevails  over  all  by  hereditary  right."  "  No  other 
explanation,  therefore,  can  be  given  of  our  being 
said  to  be  dead  in  Adam  than  that  his  transgression 
not  only  procured  misery  and  ruin  for  himself,  but 
also  precipitated  our  nature  into  similar  destruction, 
and  that  not  by  his  personal  guilt  as  an  individual, 
which  pertains  not  to  us,  but  because  he  infected  all 
his  descendants  with  the  corruption  into  which  he 
had  fallen."  And  again  :  "  We  are,  on  account  of 
this  very  corruption,  considered  as  convicted  and 
justly  condemned  in  the  sight  of  God,  to  whom 
nothing  is  acceptable  but  righteousness,  innocence 
and  purity.  And  this  liability  to  punishment 
arises  not  from  the  delinquency  of  another — for 

*  InstiL,  b.  iii.,  ch.  iii.,  §  21,  ch.  xxii.,  §  10,  and  ch.  xxiv., 
U  6,  8,  16,  17,  and  Scott,  p.  597. 


52  JOHN  CALVIN. 

when  it  is  said  that  the  sin  of  Adam  renders  us 
obnoxious  to  the  divine  judgment  it  is  not  to  be 
understood  as  if  we,  though  innocent,  were  unde- 
servedly loaded  with  the  guilt  of  his  sin — but  be- 
cause we  are  all  subject  to  a  curse  in  consequence 
of  his  transgression  he  is  therefore  said  to  have 
involved  us  in  guilt.  Nevertheless,  we  derive 
from  him  not  only  the  punishment,  but  also  the 
pollution,  to  which  the  punishment  is  justly  due.'^  * 

He  allows  that  even  as  fallen  "  the  soul  of  man 
is  irradiated  with  a  beam  of  divine  light ;  so  that 
it  is  never  wholly  destitute  of  some  little  flame,  or 
at  least  a  spark  of  it,'^  though  "  it  cannot  compre- 
hend God  by  that  illumination,''  the  remaining  im- 
age of  God  being  but  the  ruin  of  the  original,  and 
"  confused,  mutilated  and  defiled/'  f 

His  doctrines,  therefore,  as  he  frequently  shows, 
cut  up  by  the  roots  all  presumption,  prevent  de- 
spair, encourage  hope  and  in  an  eminent  degree 
enforce  and  cherish  holiness  of  both  heart  and  life.J 
His  doctrines  also  make  special  provision  for  the 
salvation  of  all  elect  children,  whether  baptized  or 

*  Instit,  b.  ii.,  ch.  i.,  U  10,  11,  and  b.  ii.,  ch.  i.,  §§  6,  8. 
t  Ibid.,  b.  i.,  ch.  xv.,  U  4,  6,  b.  ii.,  ch.  ii.,  §  12,  b.  ii.,  ch.  i., 
II  13,  19,  22,  24,  and  ch.  iii.,  ^  4. 
X  Ibid.,  b.  iii.,  ch.  xxiv.,  ^  4,  and  ch.  xiv.,  H  17-21. 


CHARGES  OF  INTOLERANCE.  53 

unbaptized,  whether  Christian  or  pagan ;  nor  did 
he  ever  discountenance  the  idea  that  all  children 
dying  in  infancy  may  be  regarded  as  among  the 
elect,  and  therefore  as  assuredly  saved.  *  He  also 
approved  the  baptism  of  the  infants  of  all  baptized 
parents,  whether  communicants  or  not,  recognizing 
the  covenant  right  of  such  children  to  the  seal  of 
those  privileges  to  which  they  have  a  natural  and 
necessary  claim. 

I  may  also  mention,  as  interesting  at  this  time, 
that  Calvin  approved  of  a  public  form  for  the  in- 
troduction of  professors  into  the  Christian  Church.f 

Now,  let  these   views  of   Calvin  be  compared 

*  In  his  Instit.  (b.  iv.,  ch.  xvi.),  where  he  argues  against  those 
who  affirmed  that  regeneration  cannot  take  place  in  early  in- 
fancy, "  God,"  says  he,  "  adopts  infants  and  washes  them  in  the 
blood  of  his  Son,"  and  "  they  are  regarded  by  Christ  as  among 
his  flock."  Again  (Instit.,  b.  iv.,  ch.  xvi.,  §  31,  p.  461 ;  see  also 
pp.  435,  436, 451),  he  says  of  John  iii.  36 :  "  Christ  is  not  speak- 
ing of  the  general  guilt  in  which  all  the  descendants  of  Adam 
are  involved,  but  only  threatening  the  despisers  of  the  gospel 
who  proudly  and  obstinately  reject  the  grace  that  is  offered 
them  ;  and  this  has  nothing  to  do  with  infants.  I  likewise  op- 
pose a  contrary  argument :  all  those  whom  Christ  blesses  are  ex- 
empted from  the  curse  of  Adam  and  the  wrath  of  God ;  and  it  is 
known  that  infants  were  blessed  by  him :  it  follows  that  they 
are  exempted  from  death." 

t  Instit.,  b.  iv.,  ch.  xix.,  ^^4,  13. 


54  JOHN  CALVIN. 

with  those  of  Luther  and  Melanchthon  on  the 
subject  of  predestination,  or  with  those  of  Beza, 
his  own  coadjutor,  or  with  those  of  the  Englisn 
Reformers  and  the  Lambeth  Articles,  and  will 
they  nut  be  allowed,  by  every  one  who  passes 
upon  them  an  impartial  judgment,  to  be  at  once 
liberal,  moderate  and  wise? 

While  these  doctrines,  by  which  alone  many 
know  Calvin,  were  not  peculiar  to  him,  it  is  also  true 
that  they  were  not  dwelt  upon  by  him  in  his  writ- 
ings with  any  undue  prominence,  but  were  kept  in 
subordination  to  other  subjects.*  And  when  the 
unparalleled  consistency  with  which,  through  his 
whole  life,  Calvin  continued  to  maintain  the  same 
views  is  contrasted  with  the  variation  of  others, 
how  illustriously  do  they  exhibit  the  superiority  of 
his  intellectual  powers !  Not  that  he  was  infalli- 
ble :  far  from  it.  He  too  was  human,  fallible,  liable 
to  make  mistakes,  and  chargeable  with  error.  In 
making  assurance  of  salvation  necessary  to  a  true 
faith,  in  questioning  the  peculiar  and  permanent 
sanctity  of  the  Sabbath  day,  in  supposing  that  Christ 
descended  to  hell  or  endured  on  the  cross  the  tor- 

*  "If  you  read  the  letters  of  Calvin,  you  will  find  very  little 
about  predestination  and  very  much  aVout  all  the  other  doc- 
trines of  Christianity." 


CHARGES  OF  INTOLERANCE.  55 

loeuts  of  hell,  Calvin  certainly  erred,  and  is  not 
by  any  to  be  believed  or  followed.* 

But  we  proceed  to  remark  that  Calvin  was  not 
intolerant  in  spirit  or  in  practice.  It  is  true  that 
Servetus  was  at  his  prosecution  brought  to  trial 
for  conduct  the  most  criminal  and  opinions  the 
most  horrible,  which  in  the  face  of  the  laws  and 
of  repeated  admonition  he  continued  to  propagate 
with  pestiferous  zeal.  But  that  Calvin  did  more 
than  this,  in  the  whole  course  of  his  life,  to  give 
occasion  to  the  charges  of  persecuting  intolerance 
so  loudly  proclaimed  against  him  we  positively 
deny.  To  affirm,  as  many  do,  that  he  sought 
the  burning  of  Servetus,  that  he  influenced  the 
senate  in  securing  his  death,  that  he  aided  or 
abetted  in  his  execution,  or  that  he  did  not  use 
his  best  endeavors  to  procure  a  mitigation  of  his 
sentence,  is  an  atrocious  calumny  against  the 
truth  of  history  and  an  act  of  black  persecu- 
tion against  the  memory  of  a  great  and  good 
man. 

We  have  already  oifered  proof  of  the  liberality 
and  moderation  of  Calvin  even  toward  opponents. 
Many  similar  facts  illustrative  of  his  great  for- 

*  See  Scott's  Contintiation  of  Milner,  vol.  iii.,  pp.  545,  550  and 
583,  and  BibUcal  Repertory,  1831,  p.  421. 


56  JOHN  CALVIN. 

bearance  might  be  adduced.  His  benevolence  nd 
one  can  dispute,  nor  can  any  one  question  his  hum- 
ble and  unambitious  spirit.  The  earlier  editions 
of  his  Institutes  contained  also  the  following  elo- 
quent argument  in  favor  of  toleration:  "Though 
it  may  be  wrong  to  form  friendship  or  intimacy 
with  those  who  hold  pernicious  opinions,  yet  must 
we  contend  against  them  only  by  exhortation,  by 
kindly  instructions,  by  clemency,  by  mildness,  by 
prayers  to  God,  that  they  may  be  so  changed  as  to 
bear  good  fruits  and  be  restored  to  the  unity  of  the 
Church.  And  not  only  are  erring  Christiaiis  to  be 
so  treated,  but  even  Turks  and  Saracens.'^  * 

This,  then,  was  the  natural  spirit  and  the  gen- 
uine creed  of  Calvin.  But  it  was  diametrically 
opposed  to  the  spirit  and  to  the  universal  senti- 
ment of  the  age.  The  Romish  Church  had  dif- 
fused the  notion  that  the  spirit  of  the  judicial  laws 
of  the  Old  Testament  still  constituted  the  rule  and 
standard  of  the  Christian  Church.  Of  necessity, 
therefore,  a  regard  for  the  public  peace  and  the 
preservation  of  the  Church  of  Christ  from  infec- 
tion required  the  punishment  of  heretics  and  blas- 
phemers.f     Toleration  of  errorists  was  deemed  sin- 

*  Dr.  Taylor's  Biography  of  tJie  Age  of  Elizabeth,  vol.  ii.,  p.  4G, 
f  See  Clarke's  Hiatory  of  Intolerance,  vol.  i.,  pp.  xviii.,  xxi. 


CHARGES  OF  INTOLERANCE.  57 

ful,  and  their  destruction  a  Christian  duty.  Men 
were  taught  to  believe  that  temporal  penalties  were 
God's  appointed  means  for  making  men  virtuous 
and  religious.  The  gibbet,  the  stake,  the  cell,  and 
various  other  modes  of  torture,  were  therefore  the 
chief  arguments  employed.  Priests  became  inquis- 
itors. The  pulpit  was  the  inciter  to  slaughter,  and 
Te  Deums  resounded  through  cloistered  walls  in 
commemoration  of  the  deaths  of  infamous  heretics. 
Persecution,  in  short,  was  the  avowed  policy  of  both 
the  Church  and  the  State  for  the  suppression  of 
dangerous  opinions.  Now,  the  Reformers,  be  it 
remembered,  were  all  Romish  theologians,  trained 
up  in  the  bosom  of  the  Roman  Church  and  im- 
bued with  these  fatal  sentiments,  which  were  every- 
where applauded.* 

The  liberty  of  the  Reformation,  also,  had  been 
abused  to  the  greatest  licentiousness  both  of  opin- 
ion and  of  practice.  Such  heresies  in  doctrine  and 
excesses  in  conduct  were  all  employed  as  arguments 
against  the  Reformation.  While,  then,  tolerance 
of  error  was  a  standing  reproach  in  the  mouth  of 
Rome  against  their  cause,  the  Reformers,  deluded 
in  their  first  principles,  blinded  by  the  universal 
opinion  of  all  parties,  and  driven,  in  self-defence, 
*  Viller  On  tU  Reformation,  p.  260. 


58  JOHN  CALVIN. 

to  oppose  themselves  to  all  heresy,  continued  to 
approve  and  to  act  upon  those  views  which  are 
now  condemned  as  intolerant  and  persecuting. 
Calvin,  therefore,  was  led  to  think  that  his  pre- 
vious views  would  encourage  heresy  and  injure 
the  cause  of  the  Reform ;  and  for  once  he  allow- 
ed his  better  judgment  to  be  warped,  and  fully 
endorsed  the  principle  that  heresy  must  be  restrain- 
ed by  force.  But  still  he  utterly  disclaimed  all 
right  or  power  on  the  part  of  the  Church  to  em- 
ploy that  force.  He  transferred  it  altogether  to 
the  civil  authorities — that  is,  to  the  hands  of  the 
community  generally,  by  whom  it  has  been  ulti- 
mately abolished.  Tried,  therefore,  by  the  uni- 
versal judgment  of  his  age,  Calvin  was  not  intol- 
erant ;  and  when  condemned  by  the  free  and  lib- 
eral views  of  the  present  time  he  meets  his  sen- 
tence in  common  with  all  men,  whether  civilians 
or  theologians,  and  with  all  the  Reformers,  whether 
continental  or  Anglican.*  So  that  the  whole  guilt 
of  the  persecuting  tenets  of  the  Reformers  must  ul- 
timately rest  upon  that  mother  from  whose  breasts 
these  all  had  drawn  the  milk  of  intolerance,  and 

*  Scott's  Continuation,  vol.  iii.,  pp.  420, 432,  433,  435, 437,438; 
D'Aubign^,  History  of  Reformation,  vol.  iii.,  p.  630 ;  Beza's  Life^ 
pp.  109,  110,  156,  197. 


CHARGES  OF  INTOLERANCE.  69 

by  whose  nurture  they  had  been  trained  up  in  the 
way  of  persecution.  The  Romish  Church,  there- 
fore, as  has  been  truly  said,  is  answerable  for  the 
execution  of  Servetus.* 

If,  however,  there  ever  was  a  case  in  which  the 
execution  of  the  penalty  of  death  could  have  been 

*"To  appreciate,"  says  lyAubignd,  "the  Beformer's  senti- 
ments as  regards  heresy,  we  must  do  something  similar  to  what 
is  done  when  we  wish  to  appreciate  the  strength  of  a  river:  we 
must  separate  it  into  two  forces.  We  must  thus  separate  Calvin's 
feeling  against  heresy.  One  force  was  excellent:  it  belonged  to 
Calvin  ;  the  other  is  deplorable :  it  belongs  to  the  age  he  lived 
in.  The  part  that  belongs  to  Calvin  is  the  horror  he  feels  for 
false  doctrines  which  attack  the  glory  of  God  in  Jesus  Christ. 
Would  to  God  we  felt  more  of  this  horror  for  all  that  is  false 
and  evil !  But  to  the  sixteenth  century  belongs  the  idea  that 
the  faults  committed  against  the  first  table  of  the  law,  or  against 
God,  ought  to  be  punished  by  human  tribunals,  and  by  such  a 
punishment  as  would  be  inflicted  for  faults  committed  against 
the  second  table,  or  against  man.  This  was  a  Judaizing  error ; 
the  sixteenth  century  had  not  yet  understood  that  all  that  be- 
longs to  the  theocracy  of  the  Old  Testament  cannot  be  applied 
to  the  Christian  Church.  Calvin,  in  tliis  respect,  was  a  man  of 
his  age ;  Melanchthon  was  also.  It  is  sad,  but  can  we  be  sur- 
prised at  it?  A  longer  period  of  time  and  greater  discernment 
are  required  to  perceive  these  errors  than  those  which  assault  our 
faith  in  a  more  direct  manner.  I  know  almost  only  Luther 
who  on  this  point"  (religious  liberty)  "was  in  advance  of 
his  age." 


60  JOHN  CALVIN. 

properly  inflicted,  it  was  in  that  of  Servetus.  NeV' 
er  had  man  so  blasphemed  his  Maker,  so  outraged 
Christian  feeling  and  all  propriety,  so  insulted 
the  laws  in  force  for  his  destruction,  and  so  pro- 
voked the  slumbering  arm  of  vengeance  to  fall 
upon  him.* 

Servetus  had  been  driven  from  every  attempted 
residence  on  account  of  his  unbearable  conduct. 
He  had  been  tried  and  condemned  to  be  burned 
to  death  by  the  Komanists  at  Vienna,  from  whose 
hands  he  had  just  escaped  when  he  came  to  Gen- 
eva.f  He  was  well  aware  of  the  intolerant  char- 
acter of  the  laws  of  the  city  of  Geneva  enacted 
against  heretics  by  the  emperor  Frederick  I.  when 
under  imperial  and  Romish  jurisdiction,  which 
had  been  often  exercised  before  that  time,  and 
which  were  still  in  force.J  Calvin,  regarding  his 
sentiments  and  conduct  with  just  abhorrence,  and 
believing  it  to  be  his  duty,  for  the  reasons  stated, 
to  oppose  them,  gave  him  previous  notice  that  if 
he  came  to  the  city  of  Geneva  he  should  be  under 
the  necessity  of  prosecuting  him.    There  was  there- 

*Beza's  Life,  pp.  163,  203,  Philadelphia  edition. 
t  Scott,  423;  Beza,  ihid.,  163. 

J  Scott,  pp.   347,  356,   374,  430,   443;    Beza,  ibid.,  pp.  167 
180,  199. 


CHARGES  OF  INTOLEBA  y^CE.  61 

fore  no  previous  malice  in  Calvin  toward  him. 
When  Servetus  had  come  and  Calvin  had  brought 
his  character  and  opinions  to  the  views  of  the 
authorities,  his  interference  in  the  matter  there 
ceased.  He  never  visited  the  court  except  when 
required  to  do  so.  The  senate,  instead  of  being 
influenced  by  him  in  the  course  they  pursued,  were, 
the  greater  part  of  them,  at  that  very  time  opposed 
to  him.*  The  whole  matter  also,  6e/bre  sentence 
had  been  passed,  was  at  Servetus'  request  sub- 
mitted to  the  judgment  of  the  other  cities,  who 
unanimously  approved  of  his  condemnation. f 

It  was  the  sentiment  of  the  age  that  those  who 
obstinately  persisted  in  heresy  and  blasphemy  were 
worthy  of  death.  Even  the  gentle  Melanchthon 
affirms  in  a  letter  to  Calvin  that  the  magistrates 
"acted  rightly  in  putting  this  blasphemer  to 
death ;"  and  in  a  letter  to  Bullinger  the  same  mild 
and  cautious  and  truly  Christian  man  declares,  "  I 
have  been  surprised  that  there  are  men  who  blame 
this  severity." 

Servetus  himself  maintained  this  principle  in  his 
Restitution  of  Christianity,  the  very  work  which 
led  to  his   trial   and  condemnation.      The  justice 

*  Scott,  pp.  434,  440;  Beza's  Life,  168,  283. 
t  Scott,  427,  436;  Beza's  Life,  169,  195. 


62  JOHN  CALVIN. 

of  sucli  a  punishment  toward  himself  Servetus 
repeatedly  avowed,  if  guilty  of  the  charges  against 
him.  And  this  punishment  Servetus  continually 
demanded  to  be  inflicted  on  Calvin,  on  the  ground 
that  by  the  laws  of  the  state  it  was  required  that 
the  person  who  lodged  an  accusation  against  any 
one  should  sustain  it  and  make  it  good,  or,  failing 
to  do  this,  should  suffer  the  punishment  which 
would  have  been  due  to  the  accused.  This  pun- 
ishment Servetus  was  led  to  believe  he  would  be 
able  to  inflict  on  Calvin,  si;ice  in  the  council  of 
two  hundred,  before  whom  the  case  was  first  ar- 
gued, the  opponents  and  determined  enemies  of 
Calvin,  the  Libertines,  predominated. 

There  is,  however,  no  probability  that  Servetus, 
under  the  circumstances,  would  have  been  visited, 
merely  for  his  opinions,  with  the  punishment  he 
suffered. 

For  what,  then,  it  has  been  asked,  was  he  con- 
demned? Not  for  heretical  opinions  of  any  sort 
merely  or  chiefly,  we  reply.  His  opinions  and 
doctrines  were  doubtless  heretical  enough  accord- 
ing to  the  standards  of  judgment  at  the  time; 
heretical  they  would  in  any  age  be  pronounced 
by  the  great  body  of  the  Christian  Church.  But 
it  was  not  so  much  his  opinions  in  themselves  as 


CHARGES  OF  INTOLERANCE.  63 

Hie  marmer  in  which  he  stated  and  defended  them 
which  gave  offence.  The  elder  Socinus  was  teach- 
ing substantially  the  same  doctrines  at  Zurich 
without  molestation.  But,  not  content  with  sim- 
ply maintaining  and  defending  calmly  but  earnest- 
ly what  he  thought  to  be  truth,  Servetus,  it  seems, 
had  from  the  first  set  himself  to  assail  with  terms 
of  bitterest  obloquy  and  reproach — nay,  with  ri- 
baldry and  unmeasured  abuse — the  opinions  of 
those  who  differed  from  him.  He  made  use  of 
language  which  could  not  fail  to  shock  the  minds 
of  all  sober  and  pious  men  who  held  the  doctrines 
of  either  the  Catholic  or  the  Protestant  Church. 
He  calls  Persons  of  the  Godhead  delusions  of  the 
devil,  and  the  triune  God  a  monster,  a  three-head- 
ed Cerberus. 

It  was  this  bitterness  and  intolerance  of  spirit, 
this  entire  want  of  reverence  for  the  most  sacred 
things,  this  deliberate  insult  and  outrage  of  the 
religious  feelings  of  the  entire  Christian  world, 
that  armed  the  entire  Christian  world  aoraiust  him 
and  made  him  a  marked  and  outlawed  man  long 
before  he  ever  saw  Calvin  or  Geneva.  Some  thir- 
teen years  before  his  trial  he  sent  back  to  Calvin, 
with  whom  he  was  then  corresponding,  a  copy  of 
his  Institutes  with  the  most  severe  and  bitter  reflee- 


64  JOHN  CALVIN. 

tions  and  taunts  upon  the  margin,  and  sent  him 
several  letters  of  the  most  abusive  and  insulting 
character. 

The  same  spirit  was  exhibited  on  his  trial.  He 
manifested  neither  respect  for  his  judges  nor  a  de- 
cent regard  for  the  religious  sentiment  of  the  age. 
In  the  most  insulting  manner  he  heaped  upon  Cal- 
vin the  most  undeserved  reproaches  and  the  most 
abusive  epithets,  dealing  so  much  in  personalities 
and  invectives  as  to  shame  even  his  judges  and 
wear  out  the  patience  of  men  many  of  whom  were 
inclined  to  look  favorably  upon  his  cause.  So  far 
was  this  abuse  carried  that,  unable  to  bear  it  longer, 
the  entire  body  of  the  clergy,  with  Calvin  at  their 
head,  arose  on  one  occasion  and  left  the  tribunal, 
thus  closing  the  examination. 

On  his  final  trial  thirty-eight  propositions  taken 
from  his  last  work  were  handed  him.  His  answer, 
says  a  dispassionate  historian,  '^  was  more  like  the 
ravings  of  a  maniac  than  the  words  of  reason  and 
truth.  He  exhibited  a  surprising  indifference  in 
regard  to  the  erroneous  doctrines  which  were  im- 
puted to  him,  and  sought  mainly  for  hard  epithets 
to  apply  to  Calvin.  He  accused  him  ...  of 
being  a  murderer  and  a  disciple  of  Simon  Magus. 
The  margin  of  the  paper  containing  the  proposi- 


CHARGES  OF  INTOLERANCE.  65 

tioiis  was   covered   with   such    expressions    as   the 
following:    ^Thou  dreamest/  ^  Thou  liest/  'Thou 
canst  not  deny  that  thou  art  Simon  the  sorcerer/  ^' 
Another  historian  says  of  this  reply  of  Serve- 
tus,  ^^  It  is  no  presumption  to  say  that  in  point  of 
abuse  and  scurrility  this  defence  stands  unrivaled 
by  any  one  that  was  ever  made  by  any  defendant, 
however  infatuated,  in  the  most  desperate  cause.'^ 
It  was  not,  then,  so  much  his  opinions  and  dog- 
mas as  the  manner  in  which  he  maintained  them 
that  occasioned  the  final  decision  of  the  judges  and 
the   almost   unanimous   verdict   of    the   Christian 
w^orld   against  Servetus.     "If   Servetus  had  only 
attacked  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  by  arguments," 
says  an  able  writer,  "  he  would  have  been  answered 
by  arguments,  and  without  danger  of  persecution 
by  the  Protestants  he  might  have  gone  on  defend- 
ing it  until  called  to  answer  for  his  belief  by  Him 
whose   character   he   had    impugned.      Argument 
was  not  that  which  Calvin  and  his  contempora- 
ries opposed  by  the  civil  tribunal.     It  was  insult 
1  and  ribaldry,  and  that  too  against  the  Most  High^ 
5  whose  character   they  would  defend  in  the  midst 
f  of    a   perverse   and   rebellious   generation.'^     "  If 
ever  a  poor  fanatic   thrust  himself  into  the  fire," 
says  J.  T.  Coleridge,  "  it  was  Michael  Servetus." 


QQ  JOHN  CALVIN. 

What,  then,  on  the  whole,  was  Calvin's  agency 
in  this  affair  ?  Simply  this :  he  brought  an  accu- 
sation against  Servetus  when  to  have  done  other- 
wise ^yould  have  been  a  virtual  betrayal  of  the 
cause  of  the  Protestant  Reformation,  as  well  as  a 
disregard  of  the  laws  of  his  country. 

The  position  of  Calvin  was  such  that  under  the 
circumstances  he  could  hardly  do  otherwise.  He 
stood  at  the  head  of  the  Protestant  clergy,  not  of 
Geneva  alone,  but  of  Europe  and  of  the  age.  The 
reproach  of  heresy  was  resting,  in  the  estimation  of 
the  Catholic  world,  upon  the  entire  Protestant  body, 
and  especially  upon  Calvin  and  the  clergy  of  Gen- 
eva. They  were  regarded  as  Antitriuitarians,  and 
Geneva  as  a  receptacle  of  heretics.  Servetus  was 
known  and  acknowledged  to  be  a  teacher  of  the 
most  dangerous  errors,  and  in  the  common  estimate 
of  both  Catholic  and  Protestant  was  a  man  worthy 
of  death.  If  the  clergy  of  Geneva,  the  leaders  of 
the  Reformation,  failed  to  proceed  according  to  the 
laws  against  such  a  man  thus  throwing  himself 
into  the  midst  of  them,  what  could  they  expect  but 
that  the  opprobrium  of  heresy  would  justly  fasten 
itself  upon  them  in  the  general  opinion  of  men  ? 
It  was,  in  fact,  a  matter  of  self-defence  with  them 
to  show  the  world,  both  Catholic  and  Protestant, 


CHARGES  OF  INTOLERANCE.  ^f 

that  they  had  no  sympathy  with  men  who  under- 
took the  work  of  reform  in  the  spirit  and  with  the 
principles  of  Servetus.  It  was  due  to  themselves, 
due  to  the  cause  of  Protestantism,  due  to  the  state 
under  whose  laws  they  dwelt. 

As  by  law  required,  he  substantiated  the  charge 
he  had  made.  This  he  did — this,  and  nothing 
more.  With  the  condemnation  and  sentence  of 
Servetus  he  had  nothing  whatever  to  do.  The 
trial  was  before  a  civil  tribunal,  the  highest  and 
most  august  in  the  state.  Every  opportunity  of 
defence  was  afforded  the  accused.  Calvin  him- 
self furnished  him  the  books  he  needed.  The 
trial  was  conducted  with  extreme  patience  and 
deliberation.  The  case  was  finally  submitted  to 
the  churches  of  Switzerland  for  their  decision. 
With  one  voice  they  declared  the  accused  guilty. 
In  the  mean  time  the  king  of  France  energet- 
ically demanded  his  death  as  a  condemned  heretic 
who  had  escaped  from  his  dominions.  On  polit- 
ical grounds,  therefore,  and  these  alone,  his  con- 
demnation was  at  last  given.  His  punishment  is 
decided  by  the  united  councils  after  a  deliberati(ni 
of  three  days;  and,  so  far  from  triumphing  in 
its  severity,  Calvin,  at  the  head  of  the  clergy, 
petitions,  but  in  vain,  for  its  mitigation. 


68  JOHN  CALVIN. 

We  do  not  defeDcl  in  all  this  the  condemnntion 
and  death  of  Servetus.  It  was  a  great  mistnlvf^; 
call  itj  if  you  will,  a  crime.  But  let  the  blame 
rest  ichere  it  belongs — not  on  John  Calvin,  but  on 
the  men  who  decreed  that  death,  and  on  the  age 
which  sanctioned  and  demanded  it. 

And  when  it  is  remembered  that  at  this  very 
time  the  flames  were  consuming  the  victims  of 
Romish  persecution,  and  also  those  condemned 
by  Cranmer,  who  is  called  a  pattern  of  humility ; 
that  Davides  fell  a  victim  to  the  intolerance  of 
Socinus;*  that  the  English  Reformers  applauded 
the  execution  of  Servetus ;  that  his  punishment 
was  regarded  as  the  common  cause  of  all  the 
churches  in  Christendom ;  and  that  for  fifty  years 
thereafter  no  writer  criminated  Calvin  ibr  his 
agency  in  this  matter, — may  we  not  say  to  those 
who  now  try  Calvin  by  an  ex  post  facto  law,  by 
a  public  opinion  which  is  the  result  of  the  very 
doctrines  he  promulgated,  Let  him  that  is  guilt- 
less among  you  cast  the  first  stone?  In  thus 
singling  out  Calvin  as  the  object  of  your  fierce 
>resentment  you  manifest  the  very  spirit  that  you 
condemn.     So  much  for  the  charge  of  intolerance.! 

*  Scott,  439 ;  Williams,  Religious  Liberty,  p.  135. 
f  See  further  remarks  in  Chapter  X. 


CHAPTER   VI. 

CALVIN   VINDICATED    FROM    THE    CHARGE    OF  A  WANT  OF 
NATURAL  AFFECTION  AND  FRIENDSHIP. 

T71QUALLY  futile  and  untrue  is  another  charge 
"■^  made  against  Calvin — that  he  was  entirely  des- 
titute of  tenderness  and  all  natural  affection,  and 
that  no  expression  of  kindness  can  be  found  in 
his  writings.  That  his  intellectual  powers  were 
pre-eminent  and  held  his  passions,  appetites  and 
desires  in  complete  subjection  to  the  dictates  of 
prudence  and  calm  sobriety  is  unquestionably  true. 
But  that  Calvin  possessed  deep  feeling  and  was 
susceptible  of  the  strongest  and  most  tender  emo- 
tions we  believe  to  be  incontrovertibly  certain.  "I 
had  intended,"  he  says  on  his  return  to  the  people 
of  Geneva,  who  had  so  cruelly  treated  him,  "to 
address  the  people,  entering  into  a  review  of  the 
past  and  a  justification  of  myself  and  my  col- 
leagues ;  but  I  found  them  so  touched  with  remorse, 
so  ready  to  anticipate  me  in  the  confession  of  their 

69 


70  JOHN  CALVIN. 

faults,  that  I  felt  that  such  a  proceeding  would  not 
only  be  superfluous,  but  cruel."  "It  was  beauti- 
ful/' says  Beza,  "to  observe  the  union  of  these 
three  great  men — i.  e.,  Calvin,  Farel  and  Yiret — • 
in  the  service  of  their  common  Master."  When 
Farel  wished  to  visit  him  in  his  last  illness,  Calvin 
wrote  him,  saying,  "Farewell,  my  best  and  most 
worthy  brother.  Since  God  has  determined  that 
you  should  survive  me  in  this  world,  live  mindful 
of  our  union,  which  has  been  so  useful  to  the 
Church  of  God,  and  the  fruits  of  which  await  us 
in  heaven.  Do  not  fatigue  yourself  on  my  account. 
I  draw  my  breath  with  difficulty,  and  am  expecting 
continually  that  my  breath  will  fail.  It  is  sufficient 
that  I  live  and  die  in  Christ,  who  is  gain  to  his  ser- 
vants in  life  and  in  death.  Again,  farewell  with 
the  brethren." 

After  the  death  of  his  friend  Courault  he  says 
in  a  letter  to  Farel:  " I  am  so  overwhelmed  that  I 
put  no  limits  to  my  sorrow.  My  daily  occupations 
have  no  power  to  retain  my  mind  from  recurring 
to  the  event  and  revolving  constantly  the  oppressive 
thought.  The  distressing  impulses  of  the  day  are 
followed  by  the  more  torturing  anguish  of  the 
night.  I  am  not  only  troubled  with  dreams,  to 
which  I  am  inured  by  habit,  but  I  am  greatly  en- 


A  MAN  OF  DEEP  FEELING.  71 

feebled  by  the  restless  watchings  which  are  extreme- 
ly injurious  to  my  health/^ 

On  the  death  of  Bucer  he  thus  writes :  "1  feel 
my  heart  to  be  almost  torn  asunder  when  1  reflect 
on  the  very  great  loss  which  the  Church  has  sus- 
tained in  the  death  of  Bucer,  and  on  the  advantages 
that  England  would  have  derived  from  his  labors, 
had  he  been  spared  to  assist  in  carrying  on  the 
Eeformation  in  that  kingdom." 

Look,  also,  at  his  letters  of  consolation,  address- 
ed to  those  confessors  for  the  truth  who  had 
been  unable  to  make  their  escape  from  perse- 
cution.* 

On  the  death  of  his  son  he  wrote  to  Yiret, 
saying,  "The  Lord  has  certainly  inflicted  a  heavy 
and  severe  wound  on  us  by  the  death  of  our  little 
son ;  but  He  is  our  father  and  knows  what  is  expe- 
dient for  his  children."  And  when  his  wife  was 
taken  from  him  we  behold  in  Calvin  all  the  ten- 
derness of  a  most  sensitive  and  affectionate  heart. 
"Writing  to  Farel,  to  whom  he  gives  a  detail  of 
her  illness,  he  says :  "  The  report  of  the  death  of 
my  wife  has  doubtless  reached  you  before  this.  I 
use  every  exertion  in  my  power  not  to  be  entirely 
overcome  with   heaviness  of    heart.      My  friends 

*  Scott's  Continuation  of  Milner,  p.  374. 


72  JOHN  CALVIN. 

who  are  about  me  omit  nothing  that  can  afford 
alleviation  to  the  depression  of  my  mind/'  Again : 
*'  May  the  Lord  Jesus  strengthen  you  by  his  Spir- 
it and  me  also  in  this  so  great  calamity,  which 
would  inevitably  have  overpowered  me  unless  from 
heaven  he  stretched  forth  his  hand,  whose  office  it 
is  to  raise  the  fallen,  to  strengthen  the  weak  and  to 
refresh  the  weary/'  Again,  writing  to  Viret,  he 
says :  "  Although  the  death  of  my  wife  is  a  very 
severe  affliction,  yet  I  repress  as  much  as  I  am 
able  the  sorrow  of  my  heart.  My  friends  also 
afford  every  anxious  assistance,  yet,  with  all  our 
exertions,  we  effect  less  in  assuaging  my  grief  than 
I  could  wish;  but  still  the  consolation  which  I 
obtain  I  cannot  express.  You  know^the  tender- 
ness of  my  mind,  or  rather  with  what  effeminacy 
I  yield  under  trials;  so  that  without  the  exercise 
of  much  moderation  I  could  not  have  supported 
the  pressure  of  my  sorrow.  Certainly  it  is  no 
commou  occasion  of  grief.  I  am  deprived  of  a 
most  amiable  partner,  who,  whatever  might  have 
occurred  of  extreme  endurance,  would  have  been 
my  willing  companion  not  only  in  exile  and  pov- 
erty, but  even  in  death.  While  she  lived  she  was 
indeed  the  faithful  helper  of  my  ministry,  and  on 
no  occasion   did  T   ever  experience  from   her  any 


A  MAN  OF  DEEP  FEELING.  73 

interruption.  For  your  friendly  consolation  I 
return  you  my  sincere  thanks.  Farewell,  my 
dear  and  faithful  brother.  May  the  Lord  Jesus 
watch  over  and  direct  you  and  your  wife !  To  her 
and  the  brethren  express  my  best  salutation." 

Now,  if  these  proofs  of  the  tenderness  of  Calvin 
are  not  sufficient,  let  any  one  read  the  account  of 
his  closing  scenes,  and  he  will  find  the  most  touch- 
ing manifestations  of  an  affectionate  and  tender 
spirit.  As  a  brother,  friend,  husband,  father  and 
minister  Calvin  displayed  warm,  steady  and  un- 
shaken friendship  and  regard. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE   OBLIGATIONS   WHICH   WE   OWE   TO    CALVIN   AS    AMER- 
ICAN  CITIZENS  AND  CHRISTIANS,    ILLUSTRATED. 

OUCH  was  Calvin,  and  such  the  triumphant  de- 
'^  fence  of  his  character  against  all  assaults,  which 
he  has  left  behind  him  in  his  unspotted  life,  his 
unimpeachable  character,  his  familiar  epistles  and 
his  everlasting  works.  His  wisdom,  learning,  pru- 
dence and  unapproachable  excellences  as  an  author 
no  one  has  ever  dared  to  dispute.  The  star  of  his 
fame  has  continued  to  shine  with  ever-increasing 
brilliancy  in  the  intellectual  firmament,  and  still 
guides  many  a  voyager  over  the  dark  and  uncertain 
sea  of  time  to  the  sure  haven  of  everlasting  bless- 
edness. Such  is  the  rich  inheritance  he  left  us  who 
would  desire  to  be  followers  of  him  as  far  as  he 
followed  Christ.  But  this  is  not  all :  to  him  we 
are  indebted  for  other  treasures  dearly  prized  by 
every  American  citizen. 

We  look,  for  instance,  to  our  system  of  common 
schools  as  the  great  hope  of  American  freedom  in 

74 


OBLIGATIONS  OF  AMERICANS.  75 

the  intelligence  they  everywhere  diffuse.  Now, 
Calvin  was  the  father  of  popular  education  and 
the  inventor  of  the  system  of  free  schools.  None 
of  the  Reformers  perceived  more  clearly  the  ad- 
vantages of  education  or  labored  more  earnestly 
to  promote  it. 

Next  to  our  common  schools,  we  prize  our  col- 
leges and  theological  seminaries  as  the  nurseries 
of  citizens,  statesmen  and  ministers  capable  of 
guarding  the  affairs  of  a  great  and  free  people. 
Now,  the  building  and  complete  endowment  of 
the  college  and  seminary  at  Geneva  were  among 
the  last  acts  accomplished  by  Calvin,  it  having 
been  opened  in  1559  with  six  hundred  students. 
"  Even  now,  when  Geneva  has  generally  deserted 
the  standards  of  the  original  Reformers  and  join- 
ed those  of  Arius  and  Socinus,  her  sons  rejoice  in 
the  great  triumph  achieved  by  the  wisdom  of  Cal- 
vin over  the  power  of  Napoleon,  who  on  conquer- 
ing Geneva  wanted  courage  to  make  any  change 
in  the  system  of  education,  which  had  been  planted 
more  than  two  hundred  years  before  Bonaparte 
was  born,  by  this  distinguished  friend  of  genuine 
Christianity  and  a  truly  scriptural  education." 

We  hail  the  birthday  of  our  country's  liberty. 
We  still  commemorate  the  declaration  of  our  im- 


76  JOHN  CALVIN. 

tional  independence.  We  glory  in  a  country  more 
rapidly  extending  its  territory,  its  population  and 
its  riches  than  any  other  upon  earth,  in  laws  the 
most  just  and  impartial,  in  a  government  the  most 
equitable,  economical  and  free,  and  in  the  enjoyment 
of  a  religious  liberty  more  perfect  and  complete 
than  can  be  paralleled  in  the  history  of  man. 
The  star-spangled  banner  awakens  the  envy  and 
the  admiration  of  the  world,  and  our  glorious 
republic  is  the  fairy  vision  which  excites  the  em- 
ulous desire  of  imitation  in  the  bosom  of  every 
well-wisher  to  the  advancement  of  society.  But 
whence  came  all  these  ?  "  The  pilgrims  of  Ply- 
mouth,^^  says  Bancroft,  "  were  Calvinists ;  the  best 
influence  in  South  Carolina  came  from  the  Calvin- 
ists of  France ;  William  Penn  was  the  disciple  of 
the  Huguenots ;  the  ships  from  Holland  that  first 
brought  colonists  to  Manhattan  were  filled  with 
Calvinists.  He  that  will  not  honor  the  memory 
and  respect  the  influence  of  Calvin  knows  but 
little  of  the  origin  of  American  liberty."  Yes, 
Calvin  was  a  thoroughgoing  republican.  The 
Institutes  of  Calvin  carry  with  the  truths  of 
Christianity  the  seeds  of  republicanism  to  the 
ends  of  the  earth.  "  Indeed,"  says  he,*  **  if 
^  TiiPit.,  b.  iv.,  ch,  XX.,  ^  8. 


OBLIGATIONS  OF  AMERICANS.  77 

these  three  forms  of  government  which  are  stated 
by  philosophers  be  considered  in  themselves,  I  shall 
by  no  means  deny  that  either  aristocracy  or  a  mix- 
ture of  aristocracy  and  democracy  far  excels  all 
others ;  and  that,  indeed,  not  of  itself,  but  because 
it  very  rarely  happens  that  kings  regulate  them- 
selves so  that  their  will  is  never  at  variance  with 
justice  and  rectitude,  or,  in  the  next  place,  that  they 
are  endued  with  such  penetration  and  prudence  as 
in  all  cases  to  discover  what  is  best.  The  vice  or 
imperfection  of  men,  therefore,  renders  it  safer  and 
more  tolerable  for  the  government  to  be  in  the 
hands  of  many,  that  they  may  afford  each  other 
mutual  assistance  and  admonition,  and  that  if  any 
one  arrogate  to  himself  more  than  is  right  the  many 
may  act  as  censors  and  masters  to  restrain  his  am- 
bition. This  has  always  been  proved  by  experience, 
and  the  Lord  confirmed  it  by  his  authority  when  he 
established  a  government  of  this  kind  among  the 
people  of  Israel  with  a  view  to  preserve  them  in 
the  most  desirable  condition  till  he  exhibited  in 
David  a  type  of  Christ.  And  as  I  readily  ac- 
Icnowledge  that  no  kind  of  government  is  more 
hnppy  than  this,  where  liberty  is  regulated  with  ' 
becoming  moderation  and  properly  established  \ 
on  a  durable  basis,  so  also  I  consider  these  as  the 


78  JOHN  CALVIN. 

most  happy  people  who  are  permitted  to  enjoy 
such  a  condition;  and  if  they  exert  their  stren- 
uous and  constant  efforts  for  its  preservation,  I 
admit  that  they  act  in  perfect  consistence  with 
their  duty." 

"  Calvin/'  says  Bishop  Horsley,  "  was  unques- 
tionably, in  theory,  a  republican;  he  freely  de- 
clares his  opinion  that  the  republican  form,  or  an 
aristocracy  reduced  nearly  to  the  level  of  a  republic, 
was  of  all  the  best  calculated,  in  general,  to  answer 
the  ends  of  government.  So  wedded,  indeed,  was 
he  to  this  notion  that,  in  disregard  of  an  apostolic 
institution  and  the  example  of  the  primitive  ages, 
he  endeavored  to  fashion  the  government  of  all 
the  Protestant  churches  upon  republican  princi- 
ples; and  his  persevering  zeal  in  that  attempt — 
though  in  this  country,  through  the  mercy  of  God, 
it  failed — was  followed,  upon  the  whole,  with  a 
wide  and  mischievous  success.  But  in  civil  pol- 
itics, though  a  republican  in  theory,  he  was  no 
leveler." 

Geneva,  the  mother  of  modern  republics,  is  the 
monument  of  Calvin's  fame,  and,  as  Montesquieu 
says,  should  celebrate  in  annual  festival  the  day 
when  Calvin  first  entered  that  city.  Politically 
and    ecclesiastically    Calvin    honored    the    people, 


OBLIGATIONS  OF  AMERICANS.  79 

assumed  their  intelligence,  virtue  and  worth,  and 
entrusted  them  with  the  management  of  affairs. 
He  taught,  also,  the  spiritual  independence  of  the 
Church,  its  entire  separation  from  civil  govern- 
ment, and  the  supreme  and  exclusive  headship 
of  its  only  Lawgiver  and  Sovereign,  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ.  These  were  the  grand  truths  taught  and 
illustrated  by  Calvin — truths  which  drew  the  lov- 
ers of  freedom  to  Geneva,  which  sent  them  away 
burning  with  the  thirst  for  liberty  and  republican- 
ism which  aroused  the  slumbering  people  of  Europe, 
which  convulsed  France,  confederated  the  states  of 
Holland,  revolutionized  England,  Presbyterianized 
Scotland,  colonized  New  England  and  founded  this 
great  and  growing  republic. '^^ 

■^"He  lived  in  a  day  when  nations  were  shaken  to  their 
centre  by  the  excitement  of  the  Keformation ;  when  the  fields 
of  Holland  and  France  were  wet  with  the  carnage  of  pereecu- 
tion ;  when  vindictive  monarchs  on  the  one  side  threatened  all 
Protestants  with  outlawry  and  death,  and  the  Vatican  on  the 
other  sent  forth  its  anathemas  and  its  cry  for  blood.  In  that 
day,  it  is  too  true,  the  influence  of  an  ancient,  long-established, 
hardly-disputed  error,  the  constant  danger  of  his  position,  the 
intensest  desire  to  secure  union  among  the  antagonists  of  popery, 
the  engrossing  consciousness  that  this  struggle  was  for  the  eman- 
cipation of  the  Christian  world,  induced  the  great  Keformer 
to  defend  the  use  of  the  sword  for  the  extirpation  of  error. 
Reprobating  and  lamenting  his  adhesion  to  the  cruel  doctrine 


80  JOHN  CALVIN. 

This,  too,  is  an  age  of  missions.  The  mission- 
ary enterprise  is  the  glory  of  the  Church,  the 
regenerator  of  society,  the  precursor  of  the  mil- 
lennial reign  of  peace  and  happiness,  and  the  hope 
of  the  world.  With  generous  emulation,  all  branches 
of  the  Church  catholic  strive  for  the  mastery  in  this 
glorious  achievement,  while  "  Ichabod !"  is  written 
upon  any  denomination  from  whose  battlements  the 
gospel-banner  is  not  unfurled  and  whose  laggard 
troops  come  not  up  to  the  help  of  the  Lord  —  to 
the  help  of  the  Lord  against  the  mighty.  Now, 
it  was  Calvin  who  led  on  this  mighty  enterprise 
and  gave  birth  to  this  modern  crusade  against  the 
powers  of  darkness.  He  alone,  so  far  as  we  know, 
of  all  the  Reformers,  while  battling  with  surround- 
ing foes,  remembered  the  waste  places  of  the  earth 
which  are  full  of  the  habitations  of  horrid  cruelty, 
and  connected  his  name  with  the  very  earliest  at- 

wliicb  all  Chi'istenclom  had  for  centuries  implicitly  received,  we 
may  as  republicans  remember  that  Calvin  was  not  only  the 
founder  of  a  sect,  but  foremost  among  the  most  efficient  of 
modern  republican  legislators.  More  truly  benevolent  to  the 
human  race  than  Solon,  more  self-denying  than  Lycurgus,  the 
genius  of  Calvin  infused  enduring  elements  into  the  institutions 
of  Geneva  and  made  it  for  the  modern  world  the  impreg- 
nable fortress  of  popular  liberty,  the  fertile  seed-plot  of  de- 
mocracy."— From  an  Address  to  the  Public  by  G.  Bancroft,  Esq. 


OBLIGATIONS  OF  AMERICANS.  81 

tempt  to  establish  a  Protestant  mission  in  the 
heathen  world.  He  united  with  the  admiral  De 
Coligny  in  establishing  a  colony  on  the  coast  of 
Brazil,  to  which  he  sent  Peter  Kichter  and  several 
others  from  Geneva,  who  were  accompanied  with 
numerous  French  Protestants.*  Presbytery  and 
missions  are  therefore  coeval,  coextensive  and  in- 
separable. They  went  hand  in  hand  during  the 
first  six  centuries ;  they  again  clasped  hands  in  indis- 
soluble union  at  the  era  of  the  Reformation ;  they 
have  lived  together  in  wedded  peace,  harmony  and 
zeal ;  and  whom  God  hath  so  joined  together,  let 
no  apathy  or  unbelief  or  opinions  ever  put  asunder. 
To  bequeath  to  us  his  spiritual  descendants  these 
incomparable  blessings,  Calvin  early  sacrificed  the 
glittering  crown  of  academic  fame  and  certain 
worldly  aggrandizement  and  honor,  became  an 
exile  from  home,  kindred  and  country,  endured 
calumny,  reproach,  persecution,  banishment  and 
poverty,  wore  out  his  weak  and  suffering  body 
with  excessive  and  unremitting  toil,  and  at  the 
early  age  of  fifty-four  sunk  into  the  tomb.f 

*Scott,pp.462,464. 

f  There  is  another  blessing  for  which,  as  Christians,  we  are 
indebted  to  Calvin,  and  which  cannot  be  too  highly  estimated :  I 
mean  congregational  psalmody.  Calvin  encouraged  Marot  to 
6 


82  JOHN  CALVIN. 

make  his  metrical  version  of  the  psalms.  He  wrote  a  preface 
to  them,  when  first  published,  in  1543.  He  took  care  to  have 
them  set  to  music  by  the  most  distinguished  musicians.  He 
tlien  introduced  them  into  the  public  service  of  the  Church. 
The  mode  of  singing  psalms  in  measured  verse  was  thus  first 
introduced  by  Calvin  at  Geneva  in  1543.  From  that  church 
the  practice  went  forth  into  all  the  Keformed  churches  in  France, 
juid  was  introduced  into  England  by  the  Presbyterians  who  re- 
sided at  Geneva  and  established  an  English  church  there  dur- 
ing the  Marian  persecution.  The  English  exiles  while  at  Gen- 
eva commenced  and  completed  a  translation  of  the  Scriptures 
into  the  English  language.  The  principal  translators  were 
Miles  Coverdale,  Christopher  Goodman,  John  Knox,  Anthony 
Gilby,  or  Gibbs,  Thomas  Sampson,  William  Cole  and  William 
Whittingham.  They  divided  the  chapters  into  verses  and 
added  notes  in  the  margin,  and  also  tables,  maps,  etc.,  and  pub- 
lished it,  with  a  dedication  to  Queen  Elizabeth,  in  1560.  The 
psalms,  versified  and  set  to  music,  as  in  the  church  of  Geneva, 
were  annexed  to  this  Bible.  This  version  has  been  known  as 
that  of  Sternhold  and  Hopkins.  The  initials  of  the  name  of 
the  versifier  were  prefixed  to  each  psalm.  Thus  the  psalms, 
versified  in  English,  came  into  England,  and  were  allowed,  first, 
to  be  sung  before  the  morning  and  evening  service,  and  at  length 
they  were  published  with  this  declaration :  "  Psalms  set  forth 
and  allowed  to  be  sung  in  all  churches  before  and  after  morning 
and  evening  prayer,  as  also  before  and  after  sermons."  And 
in  a  short  time  they  superseded  the  Te  Deum,  Benedicite, 
Magnificat  and  Nunc  Dimittis,  which  had  been  retained  from 
the  Eomish  Church.— Bayle,  art.  "Marot;"  Neal,  p.  109; 
Heylin,  pp.  213,  214;  Bees'  Cydopcedia,  art.  "Bible;"  Burnet, 
p.  290 ;  Waterman's  Life  of  Calvin,  p.  403. 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

THE    CLOSING   SCENES    OF   CALVIN'S    LIFE. 

T  ET  us,  then,  before  we  take  our  leave,  draw 
near  and  contemplate  the  last  act  in  the  drama 
of  this  great  and  good  man's  life.  Methinks  I  see 
that  emaciated  frame,  that  sunken  cheek  and  that 
bright  ethereal  eye  as  Calvin  lay  upon  his  study- 
couch.  He  heeds  not  the  agonies  of  his  frame,  his 
vigorous  mind  rising  in  its  power  as  the  outward 
man  perished  in  decay.  The  nearer  he  approached 
his  end  the  more  energetically  did  he  ply  his  unre- 
mitted studies.  In  his  severest  pains  he  woukl  raise 
his  eyes  to  heaven  and  say,  "  How  long,  O  Lord  ?" 
and  then  resume  his  efforts.  When  urged  to  allow 
himself  repose  he  would  say,  '■^  What !  would  you 
that  when  the  Lord  comes  he  should  surprise  me 
in  idleness  ?''  Some  of  his  most  important  and 
labored  commentaries  were  therefore  finished  dur- 
ing this  last  year. 

On  the  10th  of  March  his  brother-ministers  com- 
ing to  him,  with  a  kind  and  cheerful  countenance 

88 


84  JOHN  CALVIN. 

he  warmly  thanked  them  for  all  tlieir  kindness, 
and  hoped  to  meet  them  at  their  regular  assembly 
for  the  last  time,  when  he  thought  the  Lord  would 
probably  take  him  to  himself.  On  the  27ih  he 
caused  himself  to  be  carried  to  the  senate- hou^e, 
and,  being  supported  by  his  friends,  he  walked 
into  the  hall,  when,  uncovering  his  head,  he  re- 
turned thanks  for  all  the  kindness  they  had  shown 
him,  especially  during  his  sickness.  With  a  fal- 
tering voice  he  then  added,  "  I  think  I  have  en- 
tered this  house  for  the  last  time,"  and  amid  flow- 
ing tears  took  his  leave.  On  the  2d  of  April  he 
was  carried  to  the  church,  where  he  received  the 
sacrament  at  the  hands  of  Beza,  joining  in  the 
hymn  with  such  an  expression  of  joy  in  his  coun- 
tenance as  attracted  the  notice  of  the  congregation. 
Having  made  his  will*  on  the  27th  of  this  month, 

*  See  in  Chapter  XI.  Speaking  of  his  will,  Bayle,  the 
^reat  infidel  philosopher,  says :  "  For  a  man  who  had  acquired 
so  great  a  reputation  and  authority  to  content  himself  with  a 
hundred  crowns  a  year  salary,  and  after  having  lived  till  near 
fifty-five  years  of  age  with  the  greatest  frugality  to  leave  behind 
him  no  more  than  three  hundred  crowns,  his  library  included, 
is  something  so  heroical  that  it  must  be  stupidity  itself  not  to 
admire  it.  To  conclude,  such  a  will  as  this  of  Calvin's,  and 
such  a  disinterestedness,  is  a  thing  so  very  extraordinary  as 
might  make  even  those  who  cast  their  eyes  on  the  philosophers 


CLOSING  SCENES.  86 

he  sent  to  inform  the  syndics  and  the  members  of 
the  senate  that  he  desired  once  more  to  address  them 
in  tlieir  hall,  whither  he  wished  to  be  carried  tlie  next 
day.  They  sent  him  word  that  they  would  wait  on 
him,  which  they  accordingly  did  the  next  day,  com- 
ing to  him  from  the  senate-house.  After  mutual 
salutations  he  proceeded  to  address  them  very  sol- 
emnly for  some  time,  and,  having  prayed  for  them, 
shook  hands  with  each  of  them,  who  were  bathed 
in  tears  and  parted  from  him  as  from  a  common 
parent.  The  following  day,  April  28th,  according 
to  his  desire,  all  the  ministers  in  the  jurisdiction 
of  Geneva  came  to  him,  whom  he  also  addressed. 
"  I  avow,"  he  said,  "  that  I  have  lived  united  with 
you,  brethren,  in  the  strictest  bonds  of  true  and 
sincere  affection,  and  I  take  my  leave  of  you  with 
the  same  feelings.  If  you  have  at  any  time  found 
me  harsh  or  peevish  under  my  affliction,  I  entreat 
your  forgiveness."  Having  shook  hands  with 
them,  we  took  leave  of  him,  says  Beza,  "  with  sad 
hearts  and  by  no  means  with  dry  eyes." 

"  The  remainder  of  his  days,"  as  Beza  informs 
us,   "Calvin  passed   in   almost   perpetual   prayer. 

of  ancient  Greece  say  of  liim,  Nou  inveni  tankimfidem  in  lara- 
el — 'I  have  not  found  so  great  faith,  no,  not  in  Israel.'''  See 
his  Dictionary,  fol.  ii.,  art.  "Calvin." 


86  JOHN  CALVIN. 

His  voice  was  interrupted  by  the  difficulty  of  his 
respiration,  but  his  eyes  (which  to  the  last  retained 
their  brilliancy),  uplifted  to  heaven,  and  the  ex- 
pression of  his  countenance,  showed  the  fervor  of 
his  supplications."  "  His  doors,"  Beza  proceeds  to 
say,  "must  have  stood  open  day  and  night  if  all 
had  been  admitted  who  from  sentiments  of  duty  and 
affection  wished  to  see  him,  but,  as  he  could  not 
speak  to  them,  he  requested  they  would  testify 
tlieir  regard  by  praying  for  him  rather  than  by 
troubling  themselves  about  seeing  him.  Often, 
also,  though  he  ever  showed  himself  glad  to  re- 
ceive me,  he  intimated  a  scruple  respecting  the 
interruption  thus  given  to  my  employments — so 
thrifty  was  he  of  time  which  ought  to  be  spent 
in  the  service  of  the  Church." 

On  the  19th  of  May,  being  the  day  the  minis- 
ters assembled  and  when  they  were  accustomed 
to  take  a  meal  together,  Calvin  requested  that 
they  should  sup  in  the  hall  of  his  house.  Being 
seated,  he  was  with  much  difficulty  carried  into 
the  hall.  "I  have  come,  my  brethren,"  said  he, 
"to  sit  with  you  for  the  last  time  at  this  table." 
But  before  long  he  said,  "I  must  be  carried  to 
ray  bed,"  adding,  as  he  looked  around  upon 
tlunn    with    a    serene    and    pleasant    countenance, 


CLOSING  SCENES.  87 

**  These  walls  will  not  prevent  my  union  with  you 
in  spirit,  although  my  body  be  absent."  He 
never  afterward  left  his  bed.  On  the  27th  of 
May,  about  eight  o'clock  in  the  evening,  the 
symptoms  of  dissolution  came  suddenly  on.  In 
the  full  possession  of  his  reason,  he  continued  to 
speak,  until,  without  a  struggle  or  a  gasp,  his 
lungs  ceased  to  play,  and  this  great  luminary  of 
the  Reformation  set  with  the  setting  sun,  to  rise 
again  in  the  firmament  of  heaven.  The  dark 
shadows  of  mourning  settled  upon  the  city.  It 
was  with  the  whole  people  a  night  of  lamentation 
and  tears.  All  could  bewail  their  loss — the  city 
her  best  citizen,  the  Church  her  renovator  and 
guide,  the  college  her  founder,  the  cause  of  Re- 
form its  ablest  champion,  and  every  family  a 
friend  and  comforter.  It  was  necessary  to  ex- 
clude the  crowds  of  visitors  who  came  to  behold 
his  remains  lest  the  occasion  might  be  misrepre- 
sented. At  two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  of  Sab- 
bath his  body,  enclosed  in  a  wooden  coffin  and 
followed  by  the  syndics,  senators,  pastors,  pro- 
fessors, together  with  almost  the  whole  city,  weep- 
ing as  they  went,  was  carried  to  the  common  buiy- 
ing-ground  without  pomp.  According  to  his  re- 
quest, no   monument  was  erected  to  his  memory, 


5»  JOHN  CALVIN. 

a  plain  stone  without  any  inscription  being  all 
that   covered   the   remains   of    Calvin. 

Such  was  Calvin  in  his  life  and  in  his  death. 
The  place  of  his  burial  is  unknown,  but  where  is 
his  fame  unheard? 

As  Cato  said  of  the  proposed  statue  for  himself, 
so  may  it  be  said  of  Calvin's  monument :  "  There 
are  so  many  monuments  in  this  world  of  ours 
that  it  may  be  much  better  if  people  ask,  "Where 
is  Cato's  monument  ?  than  to  say,  There  it  is.'' 
So  is  it  with  Calvin.  He  hath  built  himself  a 
monument  in  the  hearts  and  lives  of  millions 
more  enduring  and  more  glorious  than  any  col- 
umn of   stone  or   brass. 

"What  needs  great  Calvin  for  his  honored^bones ?-^ 
The  labor  of  an  age  in  piled  stones  ? 
Qr  that  his  hallowed  relics  should  be  hid 
Under  a  starry-pointing  pyramid? 
Dear  son  of  Memory,  great  heir  of  Fame, 
What  needst  thou  such  weak  witness  of  thy  name? 
Thon,  in  our  reverence  and  astonishment, 
Ilast  built  thyself  a  life-long  monument."  * 

To  con(;lude,  we  may  unite  with  a  late  Episco- 

*  The  following  are  the  lines  of  Beza  in  reference  to  Calvin's 
tomb: 

"  Why,  in  this  humble  and  unnoticed  tomb, 
Is  Calvin  laid,  the  dread  of  falling  Rome, 


CLOSING  SCENES.  89 

pal  reviewer  of  the  character  of  Calvin  in  hoping 
"  that  the  time  is  not  far  distant  when  new  Hors- 
leys  will  be  raised  up  to  break  in  pieces  the  arrows 
of  calumny,  and  to  make  all  the  followers  of  the 
Prince  of  peace  and  truth  ashamed  to  join  the 
ranks  of  the  infidels  in  using  the  poisoned  weap- 
ons of  shameless  detraction  for  the  purpose  of 
vilifying  the  character  of  one  of  the  most  holy, 
the  most  undaunted,  the  most  laborious  and 
the  most  disinterested  followers  of  a  crucified 
Redeemer."  * 

Mourned  by  the  good  and  by  the  wicked  feared, 
By  all  who  knew  his  excellence  revered  ; 

From  whom  ev'n  Virtue's  self  might  virtue  learn, 

And  young  and  old  its  value  may  discern? 
'Twas  Modesty,  his  constant  friend  on  earth,  ' 

That  laid  this  stone,  unsculptured  with  a  name. 
O  happy  turf!  enriched  with  Calvin's  worth. 

More  lasting  far  than  marble  is  thy  fame." 

*  The  Kev.  Mr.  Sibson,  A.  B.,  of  Trinity  College,  Dublin, 
in  his  translation  of  Beza's  Life,  pp.  118,  119. 


CHAPTER    IX. 

A  SUPPLEMENTARY  VINDICATION  OF   THE   ORDINATION  OP 
CALVIN. 

T  N  preparing  this  vindication  of  the  character  and 
life  of  Calvin  I  was  not  led  to  notice  the  ques- 
tion which  has  been  raised  by  his  enemies,  the  Ro- 
manists and  Prelatists,  whether  Calvin  was  ever 
ordained.  This  question  did  not  fall  under  the 
general  view  of  Calvin's  life  and  ^aracter  which 
it  was  my  object  to  take.  The  question  had  been 
often  met  and  triumphantly  answered,  and  appear- 
ed to  me  to  possess  little  interest  or  importance  at 
the  present  time.  Circumstances,  however,  have 
changed.  The  baseless  attempts  to  fasten  upon 
Calvin  an  approval  of  diocesan  episcopacy  having 
been  completely  foiled,  and  the  calumnies  against 
his  general  character  having  been  repelled,  his  en- 
emies have  taken  refuge  in ,  this  forlorn  hope,  and 
are  now  heard  on  everj  side  exclaiming,  "  Ah  !  but 
Calvin,  after  all,  was  never  ordained."  It  is  really 
amusing  to  see  the  baby-artifices  which  suffice  these 

90 


HIS  ORDINATION.  91 

profound  scholars,  these  inimitable  logicians,  these 
exclusive  possessors  of  all  grace.  "Calvin  was 
never  ordained,"  say  our  prelatic  friends.  "  Calvin 
was  never  ordained,"  shout  the  Romanists.  "And 
it  is  not  even  attempted  to  prove  this  all-important 
fact,"  they  both  proclaim  in  loudest  chorus.  We 
will  now,  then,  meet  these  same  confident  boasters 
and  accept  their  challenge  to  discuss  this  question. 

And,  in  the  first  place,  we  remark  that  it  is  a 
matter  of  no  practical  importance  whatever  to 
Presbyterians  whether  Calvin  was  or  was  not 
ordained.  This  whole  outcry  is  mere  noise,  vox 
et  jprceterea  nihil,  gotten  up  in  order  to  drown 
the  voice  of  reason  and  turn  away  attention  from 
evident  defeat. 

Let  it,  then,  be  fully  understood  that  the  valid- 
ity of  Presbyterian  ordination  depends  IN  NO  MAN- 
NER OR  DEGREE  upon  the  ordination  of  Calvin. 
He  may  have  been  ordained  or  not  ordained,  while 
of  our  ordination  there  can  be  no  manner  of  doubt. 
Were  the  validity  of  our  ordinations  made  to  de- 
pend upon  the  personal  succession  of  a  line  of 
single  ordainers,  were  Calvin  a  link  in  that  line, 
and  were  our  present  chain  connected  with  him, 
then,  indeed,  there  would  be  some  sense  and  some 
force  in  the  objections  made  against  Calvin^s  ordi- 


02  JOHN  CALVIN. 

uatiou.  It  is  on  this  ground  we  boldly  deny  that 
any  valid  prelatical  ordination  exists,  or  can  be 
shown  to  exist,  either  in  the  Romish,  the  Anglican 
or  the  American  Episcopal  Church.  But  we  hold  to 
no  such  doctrine.  Our  ordination  depends,  not 
upon  one  prelate,  but  upon  many  presbyters;  so 
that  even  if  invalidity  could  be  shown  to  attach  to 
any  one  of  the  number  of  presbyters  officiating  in 
any  given  case,  it  does  not  affect  the  whole,  and 
consequently  does  not  injure  that  ordination  which 
is  given  by  the  whole.  Did  Calvin  ever  ordain 
ALOJS^E  ?  Did  Calvin  ordain  alone  all  those  from 
whom  our  present  ordination  springs?  Preposterous 
assumption,  which  all  the  boldness  of  reckless  ma- 
lignity has  never  dared  to  make. 

Suppose,  then,  that  Calvin,  while  unordained,  had 
united  with  the  Presbytery  of  Geneva  in  conferring 
ordination  upon  others.  Were  not  the  others,  Farel 
and  Coraud,  ordained,  and  ordained,  too,  by  Rom- 
ish prelates?  Were  not  Luther  and  Zuinglius 
and  many  others  prelatically  ordained?  And 
subtracting,  therefore,  the  invalid  co-operation  of 
Calvin  from  tlie  ceremony,  was  there  not  still 
validity  enough  to  secure  a  valid  result?  On  the 
ground  of  Scripture,  of  reason  and  of  the  theory 
of   Presbyterian   ordination,   most  assuredly  there 


HTS   ORDINATION.  93 

was.  And,  whatever  our  opponents  may  choose  to 
say  of  the  validity  of  Presbyterian  ordination  gen- 
erally,  they  cannot,  without  betraying  absohite  ab- 
surdity, affirm  that  it  depends  in  any  degree  upon 
the  fact  of  Calvin's  ordination.  This  whole  ques- 
tion, therefore,  is  merely  one  of  literar\'  curiosity 
and  historical  research. 

But  we  proceed  a  step  farther,  and  affirm  that 
Calvin's  character  and  authority  as  a  minister  of 
Jesus  Christ  did  not  depend  upon  his  ordination. 
Ordination  does  not  confer  upon  any  man  either 
the  character  or  the  authority  of  a  minister  of 
Christ.  The  qualifications  which  fit  any  man  for 
this  high  office  can  be  imparted  only  by  God 
through  Christ  and  by  the  effectual  operation  of 
the  Holy  Spirit.  Without  these  no  man  is  a  fit 
subject  for  ordination,  which  presupposes  their  ex- 
istence. The  authority  to  preach  the  gospel  arises 
also  from  that  commission  which  Christ  has  given 
to  all  those  whom  he,  as  the  only  Head  of  the 
Church,  to  whom  all  power  in  heaven  and  on 
earth  has  been  given,  has  qualified  for  the  work. 
It  is  a  blasphemous  assumption  in  any  Church  or 
body  of  men  to  claim  the  power  of  imparting  to 
others  either  the  qualifications  or  the  authority  to 
preach  the  gospel.     Ordi nation,  therefore,  is  not  in 


94  JOHN  CALVIN. 

itself  absolutely  essential  to  a  true  ministry,  since 
without  it  there  may  be  the  qualifications  and  the 
authority  to  use  them.  Ordination  is  merely  the 
appointed  method  whereby  any  given  branch  of 
l[)e  Church  declares  its  belief  that  the  individual 
ordained  is  qualified  and  authorized  by  God  to 
preach  the  gospel,  and  whereby  it  commends  him 
to  all  those  for  whom  it  acts,  as  worthy  of  their 
confidence  and  entitled  to  all  the  respect  and  con- 
sideration due  to  a  minister  of  Christ.  Ordination, 
therefore,  is  essential  to  the  regularity j  but  not  to  the 
validityy  of  the  ministry.  And  should  any  church 
have  such  unbounded  confidence  in  the  qualifica- 
tions and  call  of  any  man  for  the  office  as  to  allow 
him  to  minister  among  them  without  a  special  or- 
dination, he  would  be  no  less  certainly  a  minister 
because  admitted  in  an  unusual  way  to  the  exercise 
of  his  gifts  and  calling.  In  ordinary  circumstances, 
of  course,  no  such  case  could  occur ;  we  speak  hy- 
pothetically.  But  is  it  true  that  Calvin  was  never 
ordained?  Then  do  our  remarks  apply  in  all  their 
strength  to  him.  Who  ever  doubted  his  qualifica- 
tions for  the  ministry  ?  Not,  surely,  the  ministers 
and  magistrates  of  Geneva,  when  they,  almost  by 
violence,  compelled  him  to  enter  upon  his  duties. 
Having,  then,  as  the  whole  Reformed  world  believe, 


mS  ORDINATION.  95 

the  qualifications  and  call  which  fitted  him  for  the 
ministry,  Calvin  had  also  the  authority  of  Christ 
for  engaging  in  its  work.  And  if  the  churches 
thought  it  unnecessary  that  he  should  be  formally 
set  apart  by  ordination,  Calvin's  authority  as  a 
minister  of  Christ  is  not  the  less,  but  even  the 
more,  evident,  since  it  was  believed  by  all  to  be 
accredited  by  extraordinary  gifts  and  calling.* 

But,  still  farther,  we  affirm  that  Calvin  was 
authorized  to  preach  by  the  Eomish  Church  it- 
self. He  received  the  tonsure  at  the  hands  of  the 
Romish  prelate,  which  is  the  first  part  of  the  cer- 
emony of  ordination  and  qualifies  for  holding  ben- 
efices and  cures.  The  hair  then  cut  from  the  crown 
of  the  head  shows,  as  is  taught  by  Romanists,  that 
the  individual  partakes  of  the  sovereignty  of  Jesus 
Christ. t  In  virtue  of  this  office  and  authority,  "  it 
is  certain"  that  John  Calvin  delivered  some  ser- 
mons at  Pont  r£v^ue  before  he  left  France.:j: 
He  had  ordination  sufficient,  therefore,  in  the  judg- 

*See  these  views  fully  and  literally  sustained  by  the  Con- 
fession of  the  French  churches,  art.  xxxi,  Quick's  Synodkon, 
vol.  i.,  p.  xiii.,  and  by  many  other  Eeformed  bodies  and 
authors  as  given  in  Henderson's  Bev.  and.  Consid.,  pp.  252- 
263. 

f  See  Broughton's  Ecclesiastical  Dictionary,  vol  ii.,  p.  468. 

X  Beza's  Life. 


96  JOHN  CALVIN. 

ment  of  the  Romish  Church,  to  warrant  his  preach- 
ing. And  since  the  power  this  Church  professes  to 
give  in  ordination  for  the  priesthood  is  idolatrous 
and  blasphemous,*  and  is  not  attempted  or  believ- 
ed in  by  the  Reformed  churches,  Calvin  received 
from  the  Romish  Church  all  that  authority  which 
is  deemed  sufficient  for  those  duties  which  are  rec- 
ognized by  Protestants  as  proper  and  peculiar  to 
the  ministry. 

But  we  advance  still  farther  in  our  argument, 
and  assert  that  it  is  a  matter  of  the  most  certain 
inference  that  Calvin  was  ordained  in  the  Reform- 
ed Church  and  by  the  Presbytery  of  Geneva. 

That  a  presbytery  existed  at  Geneva  before  Cal- 
vin reached  that  city  is  beyond  doubt.  Beza  ex- 
pressly declares  that  when  Farel  by  his  denunci- 
ation overcame  the  purpose  of  Calvin  to  pass  by 
Geneva,  "Calvin,  affrighted  by  this  terrible  de- 
nunciation, gave  himself  up  to  the  will  of  the 
presbytery  and  the  magistrates"  {"preshyterii  d 
magistratus  voluntati  ").t 

That  it  was  the  established  and  uniform  belief 
of  the  Reformers  that  ordination,  in  the  ordinary 

'^  The  offering  of  the  sacrifice  of  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ 
by  transubstantiation. 
t  Calvin,  i.,  0pp.,  folio  1. 


mS  ORDINATION.  97 

circumstances  of  the  Church,  was  necessary  and 
very  Important,  and  that  their  practice  was  con- 
sistent with  this  belief,  is  equally  certain.  Unless 
this  is  denied,  it  is  unnecessary  to  produce  the 
proofe   which   are   at  hand.* 

Nay,  more,  it  is  beyond  doubt  that  this  was  the 
judgment  not  only  of  all  the  other  Reformers,  but 
also  of  Calvin  himself.  He  insists  in  many  parts 
of  his  Institutes  (his  earliest  theological  work)  upon 
the  importance  and  necessity  of  ordination  by  tlie 
imposition  of  hands.!  These  sentiments,  which 
Calvin  had  published  just  before  going  to  Geneva, 
he  ever  after  held,  as  is  manifest  in  all  the  sub- 
sequent editions  of  this  work,  and  in  the  Confes- 
sion of  the  French  churches,  which  he  drew  up, 
and  in  which  ordination  is  declared  to  be  essential 
to  a  regular  ministry. 

The  inference,  therefore,  is  unavoidable  that  since 
there  was  a  presbytery  at  Geneva  when  Calvin  went 
there,  since  all  the  Reformers,  and  Calvin  in  par- 
ticular, insisted  on  the  necessity  and  scripturality 
of  ordination,  and  since  Calvin  is  expressly  said 
to  have  given  himself  up  to  the  presbytery,  he  must 

*  See  Seamen's   Vindication  of  the  Judgment  of  the  Reformed 
Church  concerning  Ordination,  London,  1647. 
t  See  book  iv.,  ch.  iii.,  g  16,  and  ch.  iv.,  U  6,  10,  14. 


98  JOHN  CALVIN. 

have  been,  and  he  was,  ordained.  No  particular 
record  of  the  time  and  manner  of  his  consecration 
is  necessary :  there  is  circumstantial  evidence  more 
than  sufficient  to  establish  the  fact  in  any  court 
of  law. 

But,  still  farther,  Calvin  himself  bears  witness 
that  he  was  ordained.  Thus,  in  his  preface  to  his 
Commenta7ies  on  the  Psalms,  he  says :  "  As  David 
was  raised  from  the  sheepfold  to  the  highest  dig- 
nity of  government,  so  God  has  dignified  me,  de- 
rived from  an  obscure  and  humble  origin,  with  the 
high  and  honorable  office  of  minister  and  preacher 
of  the  gospel.''  *  But,  since  Calvin  himself  pub- 
licly and  constantly  taught  the  necessity  of  ordina- 
tion to  the  ministry,  in  making  this  declaration  he 
asserts  also  the  fact  of  his  ordination.  Thus,  also, 
wlien  Cardinal  Sadolet  attacked  the  character  of 
his  ministry,  he  formally  defended  it  in  a  long  epis- 
tle addressed  to  that  distinguished  man.f  In  this 
defence  he  says :  "  Sed  quum  ministerium  meum 
quod  Dei  vocatione  fundatum  ac  sancitum  fuisse 
non  dubito,  per  latus  meum  sauciari  videam,  per- 
fidia,  erit,  non  patientia,  si  taceam  hie  atque  dis- 

"Hoc  tamen,  honorifico  munere  dignatus  est,  ut  evangelii 
praeco  essem  ac  minister. — Op.,  torn.  iii. 

t  Ad.  J.  Sadoletum  Besponio,  etc.,  in  Op.,  torn,  viii.,  p.  105,  etc 


HIS  ORDINATION.  99 

simulem.  Doctoris  primum,  deinde  pastoris  munere 
in  ecclesia  ilia  functus  sum.  Quod  earn  provinciam 
suscepi,  legitimse  fuisse  vocationis  jure  meo  conten- 
do/'  "Hoc  ergo  ministeriura  ubi  a  Domino  esse 
constiterit,"  etc.  That  is,  "  When  I  see  my  min- 
wiry,  which  I  doubt  not  was  founded  and  sanction- 
ed by  the  vocation  of  God,  wounded  through  my 
side,  it  would  be  perfidy,  and  not  patience,  if  I 
should  remain  silent  and  dissemble  in  such  a  case. 
I  tilled  (or  enjoyed  the  honor  of)  the  office,  first  of 
professor,  and  afterward  of  pastor  in  that  church, 
and  I  contend  that  I  accepted  of  that  charge,  hav- 
ing the  authority  of  a  lawful  vocation."  "Since, 
then,  my  ministry  has  been  established  by  the 
Lord,"  etc.  If,  then,  the  testimony  of  Calvin — 
published  to  the  world  in  the  face  of  the  Reform- 
ed churches,  and  in  full  view  of  their  sentiments 
and  practice  on  the  subject  of  ordination,  in  both 
which  he  concurred — can  be  relied  on,  then  is  his 
introduction  to  the  ministry  by  a  regular  ordination 
beyond  all  controversy  certain. 

But,  still  farther,  we  have  the  evidence  of  the 
Reformers  and  Reformed  churches  themselves  that 
Calvin  was  ordained.  No  one  stood  higher  among 
them  as  a  minister  and  a  leader.  He  was  chosen 
moderator  of  the  presbytery  at  Geneva,  and  con- 


100  JOHN  CALVIN. 

tinned  to  Ull  that  office  till  his  death.  He  sat 
in  the  synod  of  the  Swiss  churches.  When  driven 
from  Geneva  he  retired  to  Strasburg,  where  he  was 
again  constrained  to  enter  upon  the  duties  of  a 
professor  and  a  pastor  hy  the  agency  of  those  dis- 
tinguished men,  Bucer,  Capito,  Hedio,  Niger  and 
Sturmius.  Bucer  also,  in  a  letter  addressed  to  him 
in  1536,  expressly  calls  him  "  my  brother  and  fel- 
low-minister." Now,  all  these  Reformers,  as  we 
have  seen,  held  that  ordination  was  both  scriptural 
and  necessary;  and,  since  Calvin  himself  was  of  the 
same  opinion,  we  must  regard  their  testimony  to  his 
ministerial  character  and  standing  as  proof  positive 
of  their  belief  that  he  was  regularly  ordained. 

Beza,  in  his  Life  of  Calvin^  seems  to  declare  as 
plainly  as  language  could  do  it  that  he  was  ordain- 
ed.* He  says :  "  Calvinus  sese  presbyterii  et  mag- 
istratus  voluntati  permisit;  quorum  suffragiis,  ac- 
cedente  plebis  consensu,  delectus  non  concionator 
tantum  (hoc  autem  primum  recusarat)  sed  etiam 
pacrarum  literarum  doctor,  quod  unum  admittebat, 
est  designatus,  A.  D.  MDXXXVI."  That  is, 
"  Calvin  surrendered  himself  to  the  disposal  of 
tlie  presbytery  and  magistrates,  by  whose  votes 
(the  people  liaviug  previously  expressed  their  will- 
ingness)   having   been    chosen    not   only   preacher 


HIS  ORDINATION.  101 

(which  office  he  had,  however,  at  first  declined), 
but  also  professor  of  divinity,  he  was  set  apart 
[or  inducted  into  office]  in  the  year  1536."  Now, 
the  very  office  and  duty  of  a  presbytery  is,  among 
other  things,  to  admit  and  ordain  men  to  the  min- 
istry. But  Calvin  was  admitted  to  the  ministry 
by  a  presbytery  composed  of  Reformers  who  strong- 
ly insisted  upon  the  importance  of  the  rite  of  or- 
dination. Calvin  also  concurred  in  their  views 
of  this  ordinance  as  introductory  to  their  ministry. 
And  Beza  says  that,  having  been  elected  pastor 
by  the  people  and  having  been  approved  by  the 
votes  of  the  presbytery,  "  he  was  set  apart" — 
that  is,  in  the  regular  way,  by  ordination.  Beza 
never  dreamt  that  in  after-times  a  fact  so  necessarily 
implied  in  his  statement  and  in  all  the  circumstances 
of  the  case  could  or  would  be  questioned. 

This  clear  testimony  of  Beza  is  confirmed  by 
that  of  Junius,  the  learned  professor  of  divinity 
in  Leyden.  In  opposition  to  BeUarmine,  he  affirms 
that  the  Reformers  who  preceded  Calvin  held  and 
practiced  Presbyterian  ordination,  and  that  by 
some  of  these,  his  predecessors,  Calvin  was  him- 
self ordained.* 

*  Animadversiones  in  Bellarm.  Ckmtr<3v.y  v.  lib.,  cap.  iii.,  in  Dr. 
Miller  On  Min.,  p.  407. 


102  JOEN  CALVIN. 

Certain  it  is  that  neither  Romanists  nor  prela- 
lists  at  that  day  ever  questioned  the  fact  that 
Calvin  was  ordained  in  the  manner  of  the  Re- 
formed Church.  The  Romanists  did  not.  Car- 
dinal Bellarmine  says  that  "neither  Luther,  nor 
Zuingle,  nor  Calvin,  were  bishops  " — i.  e.,  prelates 
— "  but  only  presbyters,"  *  thus  evidently  assuming 
as  undeniable  that  they  were  all  presbyters,  and 
therefore  ordained  as  such.  Cardinal  Sadolet  seems 
also,  from  the  controversy  between  him  and  Calvin, 
fully  to  have  admitted  Calvin's  ordination  accord- 
ing to  the  order  of  the  Reformed  Church,  but  to 
have  denied  the  validity  of  such  order,  because 
administered  out  of  the  Romish  Church.  And 
hence  the  object  of  Calvin  in  his  reply  is  not  to 
establish  the  fact  of  his  ordination,  but  the  valid- 
ity .and  scripturality  of  the  orders  of  the  Re- 
formed Church. 

Neither  did  prelatists  then  question  the  minis- 
terial character  and  standing,  and  the  consequent 
ordination,  of  Calvin.  Dr.  John  Philpot,  arch- 
deacon of  Winchester,  martyr  in  1555,  in  proving 
that  the  Reformed  is  the  true  Church  by  the 
"spirit  of  wisdom,  that  the  adversaries  thereof 
could  never  be  able  to  resist,''  says :  "  Where  is 
*  Controv.,  V.  lib.,  cap.  iii.,  in  Dr.  Miller  On  Mln. 


HIS  ORDINATION.  103 

there  one  of  you  all  that  ever  hath  been  able  to 
answer  any  of  the  godly,  learned  ministers  of  Ger- 
many who  have  disclosed  your  counterfeit  religion  ? 
Which  of  you  all,  at  this  day,  is  able  to  answer 
Calvin's  Institutes^  who  is  minister  of  Geneva?" 
To  this  his  popish  inquisitor,  Dr.  Saverson,  replied, 
not  by  denying  the  ordination  or  ministerial  char- 
acter of  Calvin,  but  by  blackening  the  character  of 
the  Reformers  generally :  "  A  godly  minister,  in- 
deed, of  receipt  of  cutpurses  and  runagate  traitors," 
etc.  *'I  am  sure,''  replied  Philpot,  "you  blaspheme 
that  godly  man,  and  that  godly  church  where  he  is  a 
minister,  as  it  is  your  Church's  condition,  when  you 
cannot  answer  men  by  learning,  to  oppress  them 
with  blasphemies  and  false  reports."  *  This  title 
he  proceeds  to  give  Calvin  again  in  the  very  next 
sentence.f  Bishop  Jewell,  the  authorized  expound- 
er of  the  sentiments  of  the  English  Church,  replies 
to  the  Jesuit  Harding :  "  Touching  Mr.  Calvin,  it 
is  a  great  wrong  untruly  to  represent  so  reverend 
a  father  and  so  worthy  an  ornament  of  the  Church 
of  God.  If  you  had  ever  know^n  the  order  of  the 
church  of   Geneva,  and   had  seen   four  thousand 

*See  Examination   and  Writings  of  Philpot,  Parker  Society 
edition,  pp.  45,  46. 

t  Fox's  Examination  of  Philpot. 


104  JOHN  CALVIN. 

people  or  more  receiving  tbe  holy  mysteries  to- 
gether at  one  communion,  you  could  not,  without 
your  great  shame  and  want  of  modesty,  thus  un- 
truly have  published  to  the  world  that  by  Mr. 
Calvin's  doctrine  tbe  sacraments  are  superfluous."  * 
Such  also  were  the  views  entertained  by  Arch- 
bishop Cranmer,  Bishop  Hooper,  Bishop  Hall  and 
many  others.  Hooker  implies  the  ordination  and 
perfect  ministerial  standing  of  Calvin  in  all  that 
he  says  of  him.  He  calls  him  "  incomparably  the 
wisest  man  " — i.  e.,  minister — "  the  French  Church 
did  enjoy  since  the  hour  it  had  him."  Speaking 
of  the  Genevan  clergy,  he  calls  them  '*  pastors  of 
their  souls,"  and  then  adds :  "  Calvin  being  admit- 
ted one  of  their  preachers" — that  is,  one  of  these 
pastors,  for  they  had  no  preachers  except  their 
regularly  ordained  ministers  —  "wherefore  taking 
to  him  two  of  the  other  ministers,"  etc.f 

Bullinger  also,  the  contemporary  of  Calvin — of 
whom  it  is  said  that  "  all  the  fathers  of  the  Eng- 
lish Reformation  held  him  in  great  esteem,"  and 
that  "  he  did  much  service  in  the  English  Church," 
to  whom  Bishops  Grindal  and  Horn,  in  a  joint  let- 

*  Defence  of  the  Apology.    See  in  Kichmond's  Fathers  of  the 
English  Church,  vol.  viii.,  p.  680. 
iEcd.  Pol.  Pref,  vol.  i.,  pp.  158,  159,  Keble's  edition. 


BIS  ORDINATION,  105 

ter  to  him,  "  attribute  chiefly  the  favorable  change 
which  had  taken  place  in  the  feelings  of  the  people 
toward  the  Church,"  *  and  whose  catechism  was  se- 
lected by  the  University  of  Oxford  as  one  of  those 
books  which  the  tutors  were  required  to  use — most 
explicitly  sustains  the  ministerial  character  of  Cal- 
vin. In  a  work  published  by  order  of  the  convo- 
cation of  the  English  Church  in  1586,  cum  gratia 
d  privilegio  regies  majestatis  and  as  a  manual  for 
preachers,t  he  speaks  of  Calvin  in  these  terms: 
"  John  Calvin,  a  godly  and  learned  man,  who  with 
great  commendation  teacheth  in  the  Church  at  this 
day,  my  fellow-minister  and  most  beloved  and  dear 
brother."  t 

"Stancarus,  also,  the  Polish  Reformer,  wrote  a 
work,  Adversus  Henricum  Bullingerum,  Petrum 
Martyrum  et  Joannem  Calmum,  et  reliquos  Tiguri- 
rue  ac  Genevensis  ecdesice  ministros,  ecclesice  Dei 
perturbatoreSy  etc.  (Basle,  1547).  This  work  was 
replied  to  by  Semler,  and  is  referred  to  by  Bishop 
Jewell  in  a  letter  to  this  Swiss  Reformer.  Now, 
here  we  have  Calvin  expressly  denominated  a  rmn- 

*  Strype's  Mem.,  ii.,  1,  pp.  531,  532,  Oxford  edition ;    Strype's 
Orindal,  p.  156,  Oxford  edition. 
t  Wilkin's  Concilia,  etc.,  vol.  iv.,  pp.  321,  322. 
X  Biillinger  On  the  Saci'aments,  Cambridge,  1840,  p.  287. 


i06  JOHN  CALVIN. 

ister  by  a  Romanist  in  a  controversial  work  written 
against  him,  and  in  the  same  sense  in  which  Bul- 
linger  and  Peter  Martyr  are  called  ministers.  And 
it  remains  to  be  shown  that  Roman  Catholic  theo- 
logians are  in  the  habit  of  applying  the  term  ^  min- 
ister '  to  persons  whom  they  believe  to  be  in  no  sense 
or  manner  ordained/'  *  In  ^  Christian  letter  of 
certain  English  Protestants,  unfeigned  favorers  of 
the  present  state  of  religion  authorized  and  professed 
in  England,  under  that  reverend  and  learned  man, 
Mr.  B.  Hooker,  written  in  1590,  it  is  said  :  "  The 
reverend  fathers  of  our  Church  call  Mr.  Calvin  one 
of  the  best  writers  ( Whitgift,  Def  of  Ans.,  p.  390), 
a  reverend  father  and  a  worthy  ornament  of  the 
Church  of  God  (Jewel,  ApoL,  Def.  of,  pt.  ii.,  p.  149, 
and  Fulke  against  Stapleton,  p.  71),  not  only  de- 
fending the  same  doctrine,  but  also  discharging 
him  of  slanderous  reports  wrongfully  laid  against 
him,  knowing  that  by  defaming  the  persons  of 
ministers  the  devil  of  old  time  labored  to  over- 
throw the  gospel  of  Christ."  See  quoted  at  length 
in  Hanbury's  edition  of  Hooker's  Wo7'h8,  vol.  i., 
pp.  22,  23.  The  whole  is  very  strong.  See  also 
Wordsworth's  Eccl.  Biogr.,  vol.  iv.,  p.  269;  vol. 
v.,  p.  544,  etc.     Of  the  opinion  of  the  English 

*  See  Zurich  Letters,  1558-1579,  Parker  Society,  p.  127. 


HIS  ORDINATION.  107 

Church  as  to  the  ordination  of  John  Calvin  in 
1586  there  can,  therefore,  be  no  longer  any  ques- 
tion. 

Such,  then,  is  the  accumulated  evidence  in  proof 
of  the  certain  and  necessary  ordination  of  Calvin. 
It  can  only  be  denied  by  those  who  are  willing,  for 
sectarian  purposes,  to  shut  their  eyes  against  the 
clearest  light.  It  is  asserted  by  Calvin  himself, 
by  Beza  and  by  Junius.  It  is  implied  as  necessary 
in  the  practice  of  the  whole  Reformed  Church,  of 
which  Calvin  approved,  and  which  the  Presbytery 
of  Geneva  must  have  carried  out.  It  was  allowed 
by  Romanists  and  prelatists  of  his  own  age,  and  is 
implied  in  the  estimation  in  which  he  was  regarded 
by  the  whole  Reformed  Church. 

But  even  were  the  ordination  of  Calvin  doubt- 
ful, we  have  shown  that  he  was  so  far  ordained  by 
the  Romish  Church  as  to  be  authorized  to  preach, 
that  his  authority  as  a  minister  depends  not  on  the 
ceremony  of  ordination,  and  that,  inasmuch  as  our 
present  orders  are  in  no  degree  dependent  upon  his, 
their  validity  is  no  way  connected  Avith  the  fact  oj** 
certainty  of  Calvin's  ordination. 

While  the  validity  of  Romish  and  prelatical  or- 
dination hangs  upon  the  baseless  assumption  of  an 
unbroken  line  of  personal  successors  of  the  apostles 


108  JOHN  CALVIN. 

— a  mere  figment  of  the  imagination,  and  without 
any  foundation  in  Scripture,  reason  or  fact — our  or- 
dination is  traced  directly  to  Christ  and  his  apostles, 
is  based  upon  the  clear  evidence  of  Scripture  and 
the  undoubted  practice  of  the  primitive  Christians, 
and  is  transmitted,  not  through  one  line,  but 
through  many,  and  not  through  any  one  order 
of  prelates,  but  through  the  whole  body  of  pastors 
and  ministers  who  have  successively  existed  in  every 
age  of  the  Church. 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE  CASE  OF  SERVETUS. 

TT  had  been  a  favorite  design  of  the  late  celebra- 
-*-  ted  Dr.  McCrie  to  publish  the  life  of  Calvin, 
and  to  set  at  rest  the  question  of  Servetus's  death 
by  instituting  original  researches  in  the  archives 
and  public  library  of  Geneva.  This  labor  was 
entrusted  to  his  able  son,  the  Rev.  John  McCrie, 
who  visited  the  above  city  for  that  purpose  and 
devoted  more  than  a  year  to  collecting  valuable 
historical  data  for  his  father.  But  the  venerable 
doctor  died  when  on  the  eve  of  undertaking  the 
work  which  was  to  crown  his  literary  career.  The 
Rev.  John  McCrie  accepted  as  a  sacred  inheritance 
from  his  father  and  a  fruit  of  his  laborious  inves- 
tigation the  now  easy  and  distinguished  task  of 
rehabilitating  the  Reformer  in  public  opinion, 
when  a  premature  death  disappointed  the  expec- 
tations of   his  friends  and  relatives. 

The  rehabilitation  of  Calvin,  however,  was  de- 
layed only  to  become  the  more  sure  by  being  en- 

109 


110  JOHN  OALVIN. 

trusted  to  his  enemies  and  taking  place  in  the  very 
city  where  the  scenes  reproachfully  ascribed  to  him 
were  enacted.  A  Unitarian  clergyman  of  consid- 
erable talent  and  learning,  the  Rev.  A.  Reilliet, 
stimulated  by  the  example  of  Dr.  McCrie,  ransack- 
ed the  archives  of  Geneva,  investigated  carefully  all 
the  manuscripts  and  correspondence  of  the  times 
preserved  in  the  public  libraries  of  Europe  which 
bore  on  this  case,  and,  although  avowing  bitter  hos- 
tility to  Calvinism,  yet,  as  an  impartial  historian, 
he  published,  in  1844,  the  detailed  result  of  his 
investigations,  which  is  a  complete  verdict  of  ac- 
quittal of  the  mischievous  and  ungrounded  charges 
brought  against  Calvin  in  reference  to  Servetus's 
death. 

The  conclusion  to  which  Mr.  Reilliet  arrives, 
upon  evidence  which  can  never  be  contested,  may 
be  summed  up  as  follows :  Servetus,  although  op- 
posed to  the  Trinity,  was  anything  but  a  modern 
Unitarian.  While  the  latter  denies  the  divinity 
of  Christ,  he  denied  his  humanity  and  considered 
him  the  absolute  God ;  thus  he  was  one  degree 
farther  removed  from  Unitarian  ism  than  the  or- 
thodox, otherwise  a  thorough  pantheist,  who  as- 
serted, even  before  his  judges,  that  the  bench  on 
which  he  sat  was  God. 


THE  CASE  OF  SERVETUS.  HI 

When  Servetus  came  to  Geneva  he  had  jiLst  es- 
caped from  the  prison  at  Vienne,  where  the  Rom- 
ish bishops  had  him  sentenced  to  be  burned  by  a 
slow  fire.  He  concealed  himself  in  a  tavern  under 
an  assumed  name.  But,  learning  that  the  ministers 
had  lost  all  influence  upon  a  government  which 
hated  their  rigid  morals,  that  Calvin  at  the  time 
was  thwarted  by  them  in  everything,  and  that  Gen- 
eva had  become  untenable  for  him,  he  emerged  from 
secrecy  in  the  hope  of  placing  himself  at  the  head 
of  a  political  party  and  driving  both  Reformers  and 
the  Reformation  from  Geneva  and  substituting  his 
own  rules  and  tenets.  The  trial  of  Servetus  was 
equally  that  of  Calvin ;  indeed,  the  fate  of  the  lat- 
ter was  at  times  the  more  imminent  of  the  two,  the 
president  of  the  court  and  influential  members  of 
the  council  being  his  avowed  and  personal  enemies. 
The  struggle  was  forced  upon  him ;  the  acquittal 
of  the  one  was  to  be  the  sentence  of  the  other. 
The  awe  of  the  Protestant  governments  might  have 
saved  Calvin  from  death,  but  not  from  imprison- 
ment or  perpetual  exile,  if  Servetus  had  succeeded. 
The  court  was  partial  to  Servetus,  and  would 
fain  have  saved  him  if  his  triumphant  overbear- 
ance  had  not  ruined  his  cause ;  yet  they  would  not 
pass  sentence  upon  him,  but  left  the  case  to  the  de- 


112  JOBN  CALVIN. 

cision  of  the  four  Protestant  governments  of  Berne, 
Basle,  Zurich  and  Schaffhausen.  These  all  urged 
that  the  sentence  of  the  Romish  bishops  be  carried 
out  against  Servetus,  and  left  no  other  alternative 
to  the  weak  government  of  Geneva.  In  the  mean 
time  the  hmg  of  Franee  claimed  energetically  the  ex- 
ecution of  the  hei^etic  who  had  escaped  from  his  king- 
dom  under  sentence.  Servetus  entreated  as  a  favor 
to  be  executed  in  Geneva,  and  not  by  the  slow  fire 
of  the  Romish  bishops. 

A  most  important  point  established  by  Reilliet  is 
that  the  condemnation  of  Servetus  was  purely  polit- 
ical. He  was  sentenced  by  the  magistrates  of  Gen- 
eva, not  as  a  heretic,  but  as  a  rebel,  who  attempted 
to  subvert  the  constitution  of  Geneva.  The  purely 
theological  quarrel  disappeared  before  this  motive 
for  condemning  him.  The  judicial  sentence  in  the 
list  of  charges  brought  against  Servetus  does  not 
mention  at  all  either  the  attacks  against  Calvin 
or  those  against  the  ministers  of  Geneva.  Servetus 
well  understood  that  if  he  could  free  himself  from 
the  suspicion  of  being  a  man  of  bad  repute  and 
dangerous  to  the  public  tranquillity,  his  doctrine 
by  itself  would  not  form  a  sufficient  motive  for 
condemning  him,  or,  at  least,  would  not  draw  down 
a  very  severe  castigation. 


THE  CASE  OF  SERVETUS.  113 

When  the  sentence  was  irrevocably  passed,  Cal- 
vin and  his  colleagues  used  all  their  efforts  to  have 
the  punishment  mitigated  by  at  least  substituting 
the  sword  for  the  fire,  but  "the  little  council  re- 
jected the  request  of  Calvin.  It  is  to  him,  not- 
withstanding, that  men  have  always  imputed  the 
guilt  of  that  funeral  pile  which  he  wished  had 
never  been  reared." 


The  Free  Church  Magazine  has  the  following 
remarks  under  the  heading,  "Who  are  Calvin's 
Revilers  ?" 

Calvin  thought  heresies  injurious  to  the  Churcli 
and  to  the  State  deserved  to  be  punished  with 
civil  penalties,  and  he  gave  evidence  to  prove  that 
Servetus  was  such  a  heretic.  This  he  did  in  the 
sixteenth  century,  when  such  was  the  universally 
prevalent  opinion.  It  is  therefore  concluded  that 
Calvin  was  a  ferocious  bigot  and  monster  of  cruelty, 
that  such  is  the  spirit  of  the  system  of  religion  he 
taught,  and  that  such,  therefore,  is  the  spirit  of  every 
one  who  now  believes  that  system. 

And  who  are  they  that,  against  all  charity  and 
reason  and  common  sense,  thus  teach  and  affirm  ? 


114  JOHN  CALVIN. 

They  aro,  first,  papists ;  secoudly,  Unitarians ;  and 
thirdly,  infidels.  In  retorting  upon  them  the  shame- 
lessness  of  their  conduct  I  will  use  the  language  of 
another. 

1.  What  effrontery  can  be  more  gross  than  the 
popish  denunciation  of  Calvin  for  his  share  in  the 
trial,  and  his  supposed  share  in  the  condemnation, 
of  Servetus  ?  The  Church  of  Kome  may  well  bear 
a  grudge  at  Calvin.  He  has  been,  and  by  the  in- 
fluence of  his  writings  and  of  the  churches  which 
he  had  a  hand  in  forming  he  continues  to  be,  one 
of  their  most  formidable  foes ;  but  this  constitutes 
no  reason  for  such  impudent  injustice  as  that  with 
which  she  is  chargeable  when  she  hunts  his  memory 
as  a  persecutor.  We  do  not  refer  to  Rome's  sys- 
tematio  and  wholesale  persecution;  we  ask.  From 
whom  was  Servetus  fleeing  when  he  came  to  Gen- 
eva, where  he  was  apprehended  and  tried  ?  He  was 
fleeing  from  the  Romish  Inquisition  at  Vienne,  in 
France.  He  was  about  to  be  condemned  by  that 
body  to  the  flames  for  the  very  heresy  for  which  he 
was  subsequently  condemned  at  Geneva.  Mean- 
while, he  made  his  escape.  Did  the  Romish  Church 
in  tenderness,  and  relenting  here,  allow  the  matter 
to  drop?  No;  though  the  accused  had  fled,  she 
pursued  the  case,  condemned  Servetus  to  the  flames, 


THE  CASE  OF  SERVETUS.  115 

burut  him  in  effigy  amid  a  pile  of  his  works  shar- 
ing the  same  fate,  pronounced  him  an  outlaw  liable 
to  the  stake  the  first  moment  he  returned  to  the 
territory  of  France.  Nay,  hearing  that  he  had 
been  apprehended  at  Geneva,  whither  he  had  gone 
—  not  kidnapped  by  Calvin,  but  as  to  the  safest 
asylum  then  existing — she  applied  to  the  Genevese 
magistrates  to  have  him  delivered  up  to  her  sum- 
mary justice,  requesting  that  he  might  be  sent  back 
to  them  that  they  might  "  inflict  the  said  sentence 
[of  death],  the  execution  of  which  would  punish 
him  in  a  way  that  there  would  be  no  need  to  seek 
other  charges  against  him."  The  magistrates  re- 
fused to  surrender  their  prisoner.  Not  that  they 
had  any  wish,  probably,  to  carry  out  the  trial — it 
would  have  saved  them  much  trouble  to  have  re- 
signed him  into  the  hands  of  those  from  whom  he 
had  fled — but  by  the  laws  of  Geneva,  often,  and 
even  recently,  acted  upon,  the  magistrates  were  not 
entitled  to  surrender  an  accused  prisoner,  even 
though  the  crime  were  committed  beyond  their 
territory.  They  were  bound  to  try  the  case  for 
themselves.  It  is  owing  to  this  accident — and  noth- 
ing, surely,  could  be  more  purely  accidental — that 
Servetus  was  burnt  at  Geneva  by  Protestant  and 
Erastian  magistrates,  and  not  at  Vienne  by  popish 


116  JOHN  CALVIN. 

inquisitors.  But  for  this  accident  we  should  never 
have  heard  of  "  Calvin  and  Servetus."  The  name 
of  the  latter  would  have  been  lost  amono;  the 
thousands  and  tens  of  thousands  of  Romish  auios- 
da-fi,  and  Gibbon  would  have  had  all  the  cruelty 
without  being  "scandalized.''  It  may  be  added 
that,  on  the  poor  man  himself  being  asked  whether 
he  would  remain  at  Geneva  or  go  back  to  Yienne, 
he  implored  them  to  try  him  at  Geneva,  and  asked 
them,  "  above  all,  that  they  would  not  send  him  back 
to  Vienne."  "  This,"  adds  Reilliet,  "  was,  amid  two 
evils,  to  shun  the  more  certain."  Servetus  had  had 
experience  of  the  intolerance  of  popery  and  of  Prot- 
estantism, and,  contrary  to  the  opinion  of  Gibbon, 
he  thought  himself  safer  with  the  latter.  And  here, 
as  we  have  seen,  he  would  probably  have  escaped 
had  not  the  popish  king  of  France  demanded  his 
execution. 

Such  is  the  connection  of  the  Church  of  Rome 
with  the  case  of  Servetus ;  and  is  it  possible  not 
to  be  filled  with  disgust  when  papists  chime  in  with 
the  infidel  cry  against  the  Reformed  Church,  and, 
above  all,  against  John  Calvin,  as  the  atrocious 
persecutor  of  Servetus  to  death?  From  the  lan- 
guage which  is  often  used,  one  would  suppose  not 
only  that  the  Church  of  Rome  was  unstained  with 


THE  CASE  OF  SERVETUS.  117 

humau  blood,  but  that  she  had  been  a  sorrowing 
and  sympathizing  defender  of  Servetus  during 
all  the  days  of  his  trial,  and  particularly  on  the 
day  of  his  execution,  that  she  had  stood  by  him 
when  Protestant  Christendom  was  up  in  arms 
against  him,  and  that  she  fain,  at  any  sacrifice, 
would  have  rescued  and  honored  him.  How 
widely  different  the  facts  of  history  !  Servetus  was 
twice  condemned  to  be  burnt,  and  the  first  condem- 
nation to  burning  was  by  the  Church  of  Kome; 
and,  marvellous  to  tell,  her  educated  supporters 
have  the  face  of  brass  to  turn  around  and  denounce 
Calvin,  and  all  who  hold  the  theological  views  and 
system  of  Calvin,  as  the  exclusive  persecutors  of 
Servetus,  and  in  representing  him  as  guilty  of  a 
crime  so  atrocious  as  to  overbalance  and  oblit- 
erate all  the  autos-da-fS  of  the  Romish  Church 
through  revolving  centuries.  Was  ever  such  match- 
less effrontery  manifested  out  of  the  Church  of 
Rome?  Ah,  the  insolence  and  credulity  of 
popery ! 

2.  And  now  in  regard  to  infidelity.  She  came 
too  late  into  the  world  in  an  avowed  form  to  be 
a  very  open  persecutor,  unless,  indeed,  we  class 
many  of  the  leading  officials  of  the  Romish 
Church,   including   popes    and    cardinals,   in    the 


118  JOHN  CALVIN. 

number.  There  can  be  little  question  that  under 
a  thin  disguise  not  a  few  of  them  were  skeptics; 
and  if  they  were  persecutors,  as  we  know  they 
were,  then  we  have  a  specimen  of  persecution  in 
its  most  shocking  form — persecution  by  men  for 
not  believing  what  they  themselves  do  not  be- 
lieve. But  the  intolerance  of  infidelity  is  not 
confined  to  such  cases.  Socinianisra  may  be  fairly 
ranked  with  skepticism.  It  disclaims  all  that  is 
peculiar  in  divine  revelation.  Now,  none  have 
been  greater  partisans  of  Servetus,  none  more 
fierce  denouncers  of  Calvin,  than  just  the  Socin- 
ian  party.  Indeed,  if  there  were  any  religious 
body  bearing  the  Christian  name  to  which  Ser- 
vetus might  be  said  to  belong,  the  Socinian  would 
be  that  body.  His  creed  was  nearer  to  theirs 
than  €iny  other.  His  party  have  all  along  given 
themselves  out  as  the  friends  of  free  inquiry,  of 
candor  and  toleration ;  indeed,  they  have  assumed 
a  monopoly  of  such  qualities.  They  are  par  ex- 
oellence  the  men  of  liberty,  civil  and  religious  ;  all 
else  are  but  bigots  and  slaves.  The  small  amount 
of  what  they  believe  and  its  freedom  from  the 
mysterious,  they  hold,  gives  them  an  advantage 
over  others  in  the  way  of  loving  and  practicing 
freedom. 


THE  CASE  OF  SEBVETUS.  119 

But  what  says  history  in  regard  to  their  practice 
of  freedom?  Though  but  a  small  party,  seldom 
allied  with  civil  power  as  a  religious  body,  they 
have  continued  to  give  full  evidence  that  the  spirit 
of  intolerance  is  not  limited  to  popery  or  orthodox 
Protestantism,  that  it  is  natural  to  man,  and  that 
there  is  nothing  in  their  religious  system,  as  there 
is  in  evangelical  religion,  to  stay  or  extinguish  it. 
Early  in  the  days  of  the  Reformation,  Francis 
David,  superintending  office-bearer  of  a  Socinian 
church  in  Transylvania,  was  thrown  into  prison, 
where  he  died,  by  his  own  Socinian  friends.  For 
what  reason  ?  Because  he  held  that  Christ,  being 
a  creature,  should  not  be  prayed  to,  while  Socinus 
held  that  he  should  be  so  worshiped.  This  was  all 
the  difierence  in  belief  between  David  and  Socinus 
— an  inconceivably  smaller  difference  than  between 
Calvin  and  Servetus,  for  both,  "rational  Chris- 
tians," held  that  Christ  was  merely  a  creature; 
and  yet  there  was  imprisonment  terminating  in 
death.  Does  this  discover  remarkable  candor  and 
liberty?  Does  it  afford  any  ground  for  the  Socin- 
ians  to  triumph,  not  over  Calvin — for  he  had  noth- 
ing to  do  with  the  smtence — but  over  the  Erastian 
magistrates  of  Geneva  when  they  condemned  Ser- 
vetus, as  a  blasphemer  as  well  as  a  heretic,  to  the 


120  JOHN  CALVIN. 

flames  ?  It  would  seem  that  indifference  and  skep- 1 
ticism  in  religion  do  not  diminish  severity  in  judg-  , 
ing  of  others.  Socinus,  according  to  the  difference 
at  issue,  was  a  greater  persecutor  than  the  magis- 
tracy of  Geneva.  Nor  was  this  a  solitary  instance ; 
the  same  spirit  has  appeared  in  later  times.  The 
Socinians  assembled  at  Zurich  in  1818  and  the 
Socinian  authorities  in  Church  and  State,  as  well 
as  the  Socinian  populace  in  the  Canton  de  A^aud  in 
1824,  and  for  several  years  together,  not  forgetting 
the  same  parties  in  Geneva  itself  at  the  same  period, 
all  betrayed  a  spirit  of  as  real  persecution  as  ever 
appeared  in  Christendom ;  and  then  it  is  to  be  re- 
membered that  these  intolerant  and  violent  proceed- 
ings appeared,  not  in  the  sixteenth  or  seventeenth 
century,  but  in  the  first  quarter  of  the  nineteenth, 
at  a  period  boasting  of  its  advancement  in  knowl- 
edge and  liberality  and  freedom.  In  short,  with 
the  exception  of  popery,  which  persecutes  upon 
prhiGiple,  and  which,  therefore,  is  ever  at  home  in 
the  business,  the  latest  persecutors  in  Christendom 
have  been  the  Socinian  or  skeptical  party — the  very 
party  which  all  the  while  has  been  making  a  boast 
of  its  love  of  free  inquiry  and  almost  monopolizing 
the  name  of  freedom.  Persecuting  proceedings  at 
the  present  moment,  in  the  same  quarters  of  Switz- 


THE  CASE  OF  SERVETUS.  121 

erlancl,  show,  it  would  seem,  that  Socinianism  and 
infidelity  do  not  mean  to  make  any  change  in  the 
intolerant  character  which  has  hitherto  belonged  to 
them.  Republicans  in  civil  politics  and  Socinians, 
if  not  infidels,  in  religion  have  the  honor,  along 
with  old  popery,  of  being  the  persecutors  of  1846. 
Perhaps  at  the  existing  moment  the  former  sur- 
passes the  latter.  It  would  be  difficult,  in  any 
popish  country  pretending  to  any  measure  of  light 
or  freedom,  to  parallel  the  legislative  proceedings 
and  the  practical  doings  of  the  Canton  de  Yaud 
under  Socinian  and  infidel  rule  during  the  last  six 
months. 

But  to  bring  out  the  intolerance  of  infidelity 
proper  we  must  turn  back  for  a  little  into  the  last, 
the  eighteenth,  century.  Avowed  infidels  have 
taken  great  credit  to  themselves  as  the  friends  and 
patrons  of  freedom,  and  have  even  cried  out  bitter- 
ly against  the  supposed  severity  and  intolerance  of 
evangelical  religion,  particularly  in  its  Calvinistic 
form.  They  have  had  no  patience  for  the  uncharita- 
ble and  persecuting  spirit  of  "  the  saints,"  and  hence 
"  Calvin  and  Servetus  '^  has  proved  quite  a  stock  in 
trade  to  them.  But  have  they  really  any  great 
ground  of  boasting?  The  fact  of  their  being 
obliged  to  go  so  far  buck — nearly  three  hundred 


122  JOHN  CALVIN. 

years — for  a  single  case  is  rather  against  their  the- 
ory.    We  do  not   need   to   turn   so  far   back  for 
illustrations   of   the   persecuting   character   of   in- 
fidelity.    Montesquieu,  in  his  Esprit  des  Lois,  lib. 
xii.,  c.  v.,  has  the  candor  to  say :  ^'  I  have  not  said 
that  it  is  not  necessary  to  punish  heresy ;  I  have 
only  said  that  it  is  necessary  to  be  very  circumspect 
in  punishing  it."  We  dare  say  that  none  of  the  much- 
calumniated   Reformers   of  the   sixteenth   century 
would  quarrel  with  the  statement.     Is  it  necessary 
to  remind  the  reader  of  the  sentiment  of  Rousseau  ? 
— "The   only  way  to  hinder  fanaticism  (in   other 
words,  evangelical  religion)  is  to  i^estrain  those  who 
preach  it.    I  see  but  one  way  to  stop  its  progress,  and 
that  is  to  combat  it  with  its  own  weapons.  Little  does 
it  avail  to  reason  or  convince ;  you  must  lay  aside  phil- 
osophy, shut  your  books,  take  up  tJie  sword  and  pun- 
ish the  knaves.^'    Not  long  after  the  days  of  Rousseau 
there  was  an  opportunity  of  showing  what  French 
infidelity  understood  by  "  fanaticism.''    Christianity 
in  any  form — corrupted  as  well  as  true — including 
the  Bible  and  the  Sabbath,  was  denounced  as  a  fa- 
naticism, and  the  disciples  of  Rousseau,  Voltaire, 
Diderot,  etc.,  engaged  in  a  fierce  and  bloody  perse- 
cution of  the  Christian  name  in  point  of  atrocity 
surpassed  only  by  the  popish  persecutions  of  the 


THE  CASE  OF  SERVETUS.  123 

Middle  Ages.  Where  were  the  charity  and  candor 
and  toleration  of  infidelity  in  the  days  of  the 
French  Revolution?  And,  yet  her  crimes  were 
perpetrated  in  the  sacred  name  of  liberty.  It 
might  be  shown  that  leading  British  infidels,  such 
as  Hume  and  Gibbon,  whatever  might  be  their  pro- 
fessed principles,  were  intolerant  in  practice,  so  far 
as  their  circumstances  and  the  spirit  of  the  age  and 
indifference  to  all  religion  would  allow.  It  is  no- 
torious that  in  their  writings  they  took  the  side  of 
the  oppressor  and  the  persecutor  when  he  was 
arrayed  against  evangelical  truth  and  its  friends. 
Their  sympathies  were  not  with  the  religious  suf- 
ferer, though  suffering  in  the  cause  of  civil  freedom, 
but  with  the  tyrant  and  the  persecutor.  Their 
practical  treatment,  too,  of  men  holding  evangelical 
truth  did  not  correspond  with  their  professed  creed 
of  universal  toleration  and  non-responsibility  for 
error.  They  will  ever  be  found  sarcastically  or 
otherwise  wounding  the  feelings  of  Christians,  rid- 
iculing and  condemning  them,  and,  in  short,  discov- 
ering anything  but  a  tolerant  and  charitable  spirit. 
Holding  the  views  which  these  infidels  maintained 
on  the  subject  of  truth  and  error,  they  ought  to 
Lave  been  forbearing  and  kind;  at  least,  full  of 
commiseration  for  evangelical  Christians.     Is  this 


124  JOHN  CALVIN. 

their  spirit  ?  Was  it  this  spirit  which  characterized 
Hume  in  his  social  intercourse,  or  Gibbon  when,  de- 
nouncing Calvin,  he  declared  that  he  was  more 
scandalized  by  his  supposed  connection  with  the 
death  of  Servetus  than  with  all  the  burnings  of 
the  Church  of  Rome  ?  Even  a  recent  and  partial 
biographer  of  the  former  (Burton),  speaking  of  an 
early  work,  says :  "  Though  his  [Hume's]  philos- 
ophy is  skeptical,  his  manner  is  frequently  dogmat- 
ical; and,  while  illustrating  the  feebleness  of  all 
human  reasoning,  he  seems  as  if  he  felt  an  innate 
infallibility  in  his  own." 

But  the  inconsistencies  of  former  philosophers 
are  small  compared  with  those  of  a  modern  states- 
man and  author  whose  religious  as  well  as  phil- 
osophical standing  we  feel  some  difficulty  in  ascer- 
taining. We  allude  to  Lord  Brougham.  No  man 
of  any  name  in  modern  times  has  been  more  un- 
merciful upon  Calvin  than  His  Lordship,  and  cer- 
tainly no  one  has  betrayed  more  ignorance  of  the 
real  facts  of  the  case  which  has  drawn  forth  so 
keen  a  condemnation.  Yet,  of  all  men.  Lord 
Brougham  should  have  been  the  most  tolerant  and 
candid.  If  he  does  not  belong  to  the  skeptical,  he 
at  least  belongs  to  tlie  very  liberal,  school.  He  has 
proclaimed  as  the  very  foundation  of  toleration,  and 


THE  CASE  OF  SEBVETUS.  125 

that  with  a  most  oracular  voice,  that  a  man  is  no 
more  responsible  for  what  he  believes  than  for  the 
hue  of  his  skin  and  the  height  of  his  stature.  His 
name  was  wont  to  be  associated  with  the  advocacy 
of  all  that  was  free,  whether  civil  or  religious. 
Surely,  then.  Brougham  should  have  pitied  Calviu 
and  been  kind  and  charitable  in  his  judgment. 
The  Reformer  believed,  as  a  general  doctrine, 
that  flagrant  and  incorrigible  heretics  and  blasphe- 
mers should  be  punished;  such  was  his  deliberate 
conviction.  For  this  conviction  he  was  no  more 
responsible  than  for  the  hue  of  his  skin  and  the 
height  of  his  stature.  And  why,  then,  does  Lord 
Brougham  blame  him  and  mercilessly  misrepresent 
and  traduce  him  for  this  his  sober  belief,  any  more 
than  for  his  complexion  and  his  stature  ?  Does  the 
result  not  plainly  show  that  liberalism  in  religion 
and  politics,  whatever  it  may  pretend,  is  essentially 
intolerant  and  persecuting?  And  if  this  be  its 
character  in  the  hands  or  heart  of  Lord  Brougham, 
who  had  so  many  reasons  for  being,  in  this  respect, 
on  his  good  behavior,  how  much  stronger  must  the 
same  intolerant  persecuting  spirit  prove  in  those 
who  are  less  under  restraint !  Well  may  we  ask, 
Is  Brougham  the  man  to  condemn  the  intoler- 
ance   of    Calvin?     Intolerant   himself   without   a 


126  JOHN  CALVIN. 

rtasou — ur  rather  in  the  face  of  strong  reasons  to 
the  reverse — intolerant  in  the  nineteenth  centnry, 
Ls  he  the  man,  especially  holding  his  own  doctrine 
of  non-responsibility,  to  rebuke  the  intolerance  of 
the  sixteenth  century?  What  can  be  more  ludi- 
crous and  inconsistent?  Nothing  save  what  pro- 
ceeds from  the  same  mint,  and  the  new  coinage 
has  appeared  but  yesterday.  Lord  Brougham  sets 
himself  forth  as  the  very  patron  and  pattern  of 
freedom  in  every  form — so  much  so  that,  contrary 
to  his  own  principles,  he  is  entitled  to  rebuke  with 
all  severity  the  great  Genevan  Reformer  within  the 
British  senate  three  hundred  years  after  he  has  pass- 
ed to  his  account.  Surely,  then,  modern  liberalism 
must  be  tolerant  and  charitable — indeed,  the  very 
foe  of  whatever  savoi*s  of  persecution.  What  is  the 
fact  ?  Lord  Brougham  but  the  other  day  vindicated 
the  Scottish  site-refiiserSy  contending  that  their  pro- 
ceedings were  involved  in  the  just  rights  of  landed 
property.  The  man  who  condemns  Calvin  as  the 
most  atrocious  of  persecutors  sees  no  persecution 
(pity  but  that  he  could  feel  enough  to  know  it !)  in 
hundreds  and  thousands  of  his  countrymen,  far 
more  devout  and  religiously  intelligent  than  him- 
self, being  denied  a  piece  of  ground  on  which  they 
may  worship  God,  and  being  compelled,  for  summer 


THE  CASE  OF  SERVETUS.  127 

and  winter  together,  to  conduct  their  service  under 
the  open  canopy  of  heaven.  Lord  Brougham  sees 
no  persecution  in  large  congregations  being  driven 
to  the  high-roads  or  the  seashore  and  being  kept 
there  for  their  religious  worship  since  May,  1843, 
to  the  present  hour — August,  1846.  According  to 
His  Lordship's  principle,  there  is  no  persecution 
though  this  state  of  things  should  be  perpetuated 
for  ever.  Nay,  he  is  indignant  that  any  one  should 
deem  this  to  be  persecution,  and  will  not  allow  it  to 
be  so  declared  in  his  presence  without  an  immediate 
and  much-offended  contradiction ;  and  this  is  the  lib- 
eral-minded censor  of  the  intolerant  Calvin !  Who 
can  compare  the  two  cases  and  the  part  which  Calvin 
took  in  the  trial  of  Servetus  (for  he  had  no  hand  in 
the  sentence) — a  solitary  case  of  severity — with  the 
open,  willful,  wanton  oppression  of  multitudes  for 
years  in  free  Britain  in  the  free  nineteenth  century, 
and  not  come  to  the  conclusion  that,  all  circum- 
stances considered,  the  one  is  much  more  aggra- 
vated and  inexcusable  than  the  other  ?  But  it  is  not 
needful  to  enter  into  any  comparison.  All  that  we 
intended  to  show — and  with  this  remark  we  close — 
is  that  infidelity,  in  its  different  forms  of  Socinian- 
ism,  avowed  skepticism  and  irreligious  liberalism, 
is  most  unjust  in  its  judgment  of  Calvin  in  the 


128  JOHN  CALVIN. 

matter  of  Servetus,  and,  instead  of  being  so  candid 
and  tolerant  in  itself  as  to  be  entitled  to  take  high 
ground  and  become  the  reprover  of  others,  is  essen- 
tially intolerant,  and  is  much  less  excusable  in  its 
intolerance  than  the  men  of  the  sixteenth  century. 


CHAPTER    XI. 

THE  WILL  OF  JOHN  CALVIN. 

TN  the  name  of  the  Lord,  Amen!  In  the  year 
1564,  and  25th  day  of  April,  I,  Peter  Chenalat, 
citizen  and  notary  of  Geneva,  do  witness  and  de- 
clare, that  I  was  sent  for  by  that  excellent  charac- 
ter, John  Calvin,  minister  of  the  word  of  God  in 
this  church  of  Geneva,  and  enrolled  citizen  of  the 
same,  who,  being  indisposed  in  body,  but  sound  in 
mind,  said  he  was  desirous  to  make  his  testament, 
and  to  express  the  judgment  of  his  last  will ;  and 
requested  me  to  take  it  down  and  write  what  he 
should  dictate  and  declare  by  word  of  mouth; 
which  I  profess  I  immediately  did,  and  wrote 
down  word  by  word  as  he  pronounced  and  dic- 
tated, without  omission  or  addition,  in  the  follow- 
ing form,  dictated  by  him  : 

In   the   name   of   the   Lord,   Amen !     I,   John 
Calvin,  minister  of  the  word  of  God  in  the  church 
of  Geneva,  finding  myself  so  much  oppressed  and 
9  129 


130  JOHN  CALVIN. 

afflicted  with  various  diseases  that  I  think  the 
Lord  God  has  determined  speedily  to  remove  me 
out  of  this  world,  have  ordered  to  be  made  and 
written  my  testament  and  declaration  of  my  last 
will,  in  form  and  manner  following :  First,  I  give 
thanks  to  God  that,  taking  compassion  on  me, 
whom  he  had  created  and  placed  in  this  world,  he 
not  only  delivered  me  by  his  power  out  of  the  deep 
darkness  of  idolatry  into  which  I  was  plunged, 
that  he  might  bring  me  into  the  light  of  his 
gospel  and  make  me  a  partaker  of  the  doctrine 
of  salvation,  of  which  I  was  most  unworthy; 
that  with  the  same  goodness  and  mercy  he  has 
graciously  and  kindly  borne  with  my  multiplied 
transgressions  and  sins,  for  which  I  deserved  to 
be  rejected  and  cut  off  by  him ;  and  has  also  ex- 
ercised toward  me  such  great  compassion  and  clem- 
ency that  he  has  condescended  to  use  my  labor  in 
preaching  and  publishing  the  truth  of  his  gospel. 
I  also  testify  and  declare  that  it  is  my  full  inten- 
tion to  pass  the  remainder  of  my  life  in  the  same 
faith  and  religion  which  he  has  delivered  to  me 
by  his  gospel,  having  no  other  defence  or  refuge 
of  salvation  than  his  gratuitous  adoption,  on  which 
alone  my  safety  depends.  I  also  embrace  with 
my  whole  heart  the  mercy  which  he  exercises  to- 


HIS  WILL.  131 

ward  me  for  the  sake  of  Jesus  Christ,  atoning  for 
my  crimes  by  the  merits  of  his  death  and  passion, 
that  in  this  way  satisfaction  may  be  made  for  all 
my  transgressions  and  offences  and  the  remembrance 
of  them  blotted  out.  I  further  testify  and  declare 
that  as  a  suppliant  I  humbly  implore  of  him  to 
grant  me  to  be  so  washed  and  purified  by  the  blood 
of  that  sovereign  Redeemer,  shed  for  the  sins  of 
the  human  race,  that  I  may  be  permitted  to  stand 
before  his  tribunal  in  the  image  of  the  Redeemer 
himself.  I  likewise  declare  that  according  to  the 
measure  of  grace  and  mercy  which  God  has  vouch- 
safed me  I  have  diligently  made  it  my  endeavor, 
both  in  my  sermons,  writings  and  commentaries, 
purely  and  uncorruptly  to  preach  his  word  and 
faithfully  to  interpret  his  sacred  Scriptures.  1 
testify  and  declare  that  in  all  the  controversies 
and  disputes  which  I  have  conducted  with  the 
enemies  of  the  gospel  I  have  made  use  of  no 
craftiness,  nor  corrupt  and  sophistical  arts,  but 
have  been  engaged  in  defending  the  truth  with 
candor  and  sincerity. 

But,  alas!  my  study  and  my  zeal,  if  they  de- 
serve the  name,  have  been  so  remiss  and  languid 
that  I  confess  innumerable  things  have  been  want- 
ing in  me  to  discharge  the  duties  of  my  office  in 


132  JOHN  CALVIN. 

an  excellent  manner,  and  unless  the  infinite  bounty 
of  God  had  been  present,  all  my  study  would  have 
been  vain  and  transient.  I  also  acknowledge  that 
unless  the  same  goodness  had  accompanied  me,  the 
endowments  of  mind  bestowed  upon  me  by  God 
must  have  made  me  more  and  more  chargeable 
with  guilt  and  inactivity  before  his  tribunal.  And 
on  these  grounds  I  witness  and  declare  that  I  hope 
for  no  other  refuge  of  salvation  than  this  alone — 
that,  since  God  is  a  Father  of  mercy,  he  will  show 
himself  a  Father  to  me,  who  confess  myself  a  mis- 
erable sinner.  Further,  1  will,  after  my  departure 
out  of  this  life,  that  my  body  be  committed  to  the 
earth  in  that  manner  and  with  those  funeral  rites 
which  are  usual  in  this  city  and  church,  until  the 
day  of  the  blessed  restirrection  shall  come.  As  for 
the  small  patrimony  which  God  has  bestowed  upon 
me,  and  which  I  have  determined  to  dispose  of 
in  this  will,  I  appoint  Anthony  Calvin,  my  very 
dearly-beloved  brother,  my  heir,  but  only  as  a 
mark  of  respect.  Let  him  take  charge  of  and 
keep  as  his  own  my  silver  goblet,  which  was  given 
me  as  a  present  by  Mr.  Varanne ;  and  I  desire  he 
will  be  content  with  it.  As  for  the  residue  of  my 
property,  I  commit  it  to  his  care  with  this  request, 
that  he  restore  it  to  his  children  at  his  death.     I 


HIS  WILL.  133 

bequeath  also  to  the  school  for  boys  ten  golden 
crowns,  to  be  given  by  my  brother  and  legal  heir, 
and  to  poor  strangers  the  same  sum.  Also  to 
Jane,  daughter  of  Charles  Costans  and  of  my  half- 
sister  by  the  paternal  side,  the  sum  of  ten  crowns. 
Futhermore,  I  wish  my  heir  to  give,  on  his  death, 
to  Samuel  and  John,  sons  of  my  said  brother,  my 
nephews,  out  of  my  estate,  each  forty  crowns,  after 
his  death ;  and  to  my  nieces  Ann,  Susan  and  Dor- 
othy, each  thirty  golden  crowns.  To  my  nephew 
David,  as  a  proof  of  his  light  and  trifling  conduct, \ 
I  bequeath  only  twenty-five  golden  crowns. 

This  is  the  sum  of  all  the  patrimony  and  prop- 
erty which  God  hath  given  me,  as  far  as  I  am 
able  to  ascertain,  in  books,  movables,  my  whole 
household  furniture  and  all  'other  goods  and  chat- 
tels. Should  it,  however,  prove  more,  I  desire  it 
may  be  equally  distributed  between  my  nephews 
and  nieces  aforesaid,  not  excluding  my  nephew 
David,  should  he,  by  the  favor  of  God,  return  to 
a  useful  manner  of  life. 

Should  it,  however,  exceed  the  sum  already 
written,  I  do  not  think  it  will  be  attended  with 
much  difficulty,  especially  after  paying  my  just 
debts,  which  I  have  given  in  charge  to  my  said 
brotlier,  in  whoso*  fidelity  and  kindness  I  confide. 


134  JOHN  CALVIN. 

On  this  account  I  appoint  him  executor  of  this 
my  last  testament,  with  Laurence  de  Normandie, 
a  character  of  tried  worth,  giving  them  full  power 
and  authority,  without  a  more  exact  command  and 
order  of  court,  to  make  an  inventory  of  ray  goods. 
I  give  them  also  power  to  sell  my  movables,  that 
from  the  money  thus  procured  they  may  fulfill  the 
conditions  of  my  above-written  will,  which  I  have 
set  forth  and  declared  this  25th  day  of  April,  in 
the  year  of  our  Lord  1564. 

John  Calvin. 

When  I,  Peter  Chenalat,  the  above-mentioned 
notary,  had  written  this  last  will,  the  same  John 
Calvin  immediately  confirmed  it  by  his  usual 
subscription  and  handwriting.  On  the  following 
day,  April  26,  1564,  the  same  tried  character, 
John  Calvin,  commanded  me  to  be  called,  together 
with  Theodore  Beza,  Raymond  Chauvet,  Michael 
Cops,  Louis  Enoch,  Nicholas  CoUadon,  James  de 
Bordes,  ministers  and  preachers  of  the  word  of 
God  in  this  church  of  Geneva,  and  also  the  ex- 
cellent Henry  Scringer,  professor  of  arts,  all  cit- 
izens of  Geneva,  and  in  their  presence  he  hath 
declared  and  testified  that  he  dictated  to  me  this 
his   will    in    the  words   and    form   above  wi'itten. 


HIS  WILL.  135 

He  ordered  me  also  to  recite  it  in  their  hearing 
who  had  been  called  for  that  purpose,  which  I 
profess  to  have  done  with  a  loud  voice  and  in  an 
articulate  manner.  After  thus  reading  it  aloud 
he  testified  and  declared  it  to  be  his  last  will  and 
testament,  and  desired  it  to  be  ratified  and  con- 
firmed. As  a  testimony  and  corroboration  of 
this  he  requested  them  all  to  witness  the  same 
will  with  their  hands.  This  was  immediately 
done  by  them  on  the  day  and  year  above  written, 
at  Geneva,  in  the  street  called  the  Canons,  in  the 
house  of  the  said  testator.  In  proof  and  witness 
of  this  I  have  written  and  subscribed  with  my 
own  hand,  and  sealed  with  the  common  seal  of 
our  supreme  magistrate,  the  will  above  mentioned. 

P.  Chenalat. 


CHAPTER    XII. 

CALVIN'S  VIEWS  OF  PRELACY. 

f\^  this  subject  we  will  present  to  our  readers 
the  letters  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Miller  in  reply  to 
Bishop  Ives,*  which  appeared  in  the  Presbyterian 
in  January,  1842. 

LETTER  I. 

Reverend  and  Dear  Brother  :  The  follow- 
ing letter,  and  another  which  you  will  receive  in  a 
few  days,  were  written  a  number  of  Aveeks  ago  and 
sent  to  Lincolnton,  in  North  Carolina,  for  insertion 
in  the  Lincoln  Republican^  a  weekly  journal  printed 
in  that  town.  Very  unexpectedly  to  me,  the  ed- 
itor of  that  paper,  after  publishing  Bishop  Ivas's 
letter,  refused  to  give  admission  to  my  reply.  On 
learning  this,  I  requested  the  friend  to  whose  care 
my  communications  had  been  sent  to  transmit  them 

*  Bishop  Ives,  here  referred  to,  figured  about  this  time  as 
a  convert  to  popery,  having  resigned  into  the  hands  of  the  pope 
the  insignia  of  his  office  as  bishop  of  the  Episcopal  Church  in 
Nortli  Carolina. — Editor  of  the  Board. 
136 


VIEWS  OF  PRELACY.  137 

to  the  Watchman  of  the  South,  in  whose  pages  they 
would  be  likely  to  be  seen  by  a  large  number  of 
those  who  had  been  readers  of  the  Lincoln  Repub- 
lican. But  as  Bishop  Ives's  letter  has  been  repub- 
lished in  at  least  one  paper  in  your  city,  and  as  in 
my  reply  to  an  attack  in  that  paper  which  you 
were  so  good  as  to  publish  I  referred  to  the  letters 
which  had  been  sent  to  North  Carolina  for  further 
light  on  the  same  subject,  I  hoj)e  you  will  do  me 
the  favor  to  give  insertion  in  the  Presbyterian  to 
the  first  letter,  which  you  will  receive  herewith, 
and  also  to  the  second,  which,  with  the  permission 
of  Providence,  will  reach  you  next  week. 

I  make  no  apology  for  the  trouble  Avhich  I  have 
given  you  for  several  weeks  past  in  consequence 
of  these  ecclesiastical  polemics.  I  regret  them  as 
much  as  any  one  can  do.  They  were  not  of  mv 
seeking.  I  am  not  conscious  on  this  or  any  other 
occasion  of  having  ever  gone  into  the  field  of  de- 
nominational controversy,  excepting  when  forced 
into  it  by  fidelity  to  my  beloved  Church  and  to 
her  Head,  my  Master,  in  heaven.  To  that  high 
responsibility,  however  irksome  controversy  may 
be,  especially  at  my  time  of  life,  I  hope  I  shall 
never  be  suffered  to  be  recreant.  It  would  be 
much    more   agreeable   to  me  to  have  no  warfare 


138  JOHN  CALVIN. 

but  with  the  open  enemies  of  our  "common  sal- 
vation/' but  surely  complaints  of  "  attack  "  come 
with  rather  an  ill  grace  from  those  who  scarcely 
ever  issue  a  paper  without  loading  it  with  offensive 
missiles  against  all  who  are  out  of  their  pale.  It 
has  often  amused  me  to  see  what  a  morbid  sensi- 
bility to  what  they  called  "  attacks  "  was  manifest- 
ed by  those  who  were  constantly  dealing  around 
them  "firebrands  and  arrows/'  and  professing  at 
the  same  time,  in  words,  to  be  "  fierce  for  modera- 
tion "  and  "  furious  for  peace." 

I  am,  my  dear  sir,  very  respectfully  yours, 

Samuel  Miller. 

Pbinceton,  January  24,  1842. 

To  THE  Editor  of  the  Lincoln  Republican — 

Sir:  It  was  not  until  this  day  that  I  saw  in 
your  paper  of  the  10th  instant  a  letter  from  Bishop 
Ives  in  reply  to  a  letter  from  me  directed  to  a 
(clerical  friend  in  your  neighborhood,  and  pub- 
lished in  your  paper  a  few  weeks  before. 

My  letter  was  a  private  one,  and  published  al- 
together without  my  consent.  I  kept  no  copy  of 
it,  and,  while  I  distinctly  remember  its  general 
substance,  I  have  not  the  least  recollection  of  its 
language.     The  bishop  complains  of  the  language 


VIEWS  OF  PRELACY.  139 

as  strangely  characterized  by  asperity  and  positive- 
ness.  As  I  have  never  seen  even  the  printed  copy 
as  it  appeared  in  your  paper,  I  am  wholly  unable 
to  make  any  other  reply  to  this  charge  than  to  say 
that  as  I  felt  strongly  on  the  subject,  and  was 
perfectly  confident  that  the  allegations  which  I 
opposed  were  altogether  unfounded,  I  think  it 
probable  that  in  a  private  letter  to  a  friend  I 
expressed  myself  in  terms  which  would  have 
been  modified  if  I  had  felt  myself  to  be  writing 
for  the  public  eye.  I  had  an  interview  with  Bish- 
op Ives  in  this  place  since  the  date  of  his  letter,  but, 
as  I  had  not  the  least  knowledge  at  that  time  of 
the  publication  of  my  own  letter  or  of  his  reply 
to  it,  nothing,  of  course,  respecting  the  matter 
passed   at  that   interview. 

More  than  two  months  ago  a  correspondent  in 
North  Carolina  informed  me  that  Bishop  Ives,  in 
a  public  discourse  delivered  a  short  time  before, 
alleged  that  the  celebrated  Reformer,  Calvin,  had 
avowed  a  belief  in  the  divine  institution  of  epis- 
copacy, and  had  requested  to  receive  episcopal 
ordination  from  the  bishops  of  England.  My 
correspondent  requested  me  to  inform  him  wheth- 
er there  was  any  foundation  for  this  statement. 
I  ventured  without  hesitation  to  assure  him  that 


140  JOHN  CALVIN. 

there  was  uot,  and  that  do  well-informed  person 
could  possibly  make  it.  I  have  no  recollection  of 
having  impeached  tlie  honesty  or  the  veracity  of 
the  reverend  preacher;  for  I  had  no  doubt  that 
he  made  the  statement  on  evidence  which  he 
deemed  sufficient,  and  I  have  still  no  doubt  that 
he  verily  believea  what  he  stated  to  be  strictly 
true.  But  I  meant  to  express,  and  presume  I 
did  express,  strong  confidence  that  the  represen- 
tation which  he  niLule  was  entirely  incorrect. 
Bishop  Ives  is  equally  confident  that  his  represen- 
tation w^as  well  founded,  and  in  his  reply  to  my 
published  letter  has  made  statements  which  he 
seems  to  think  perfectly  decisive,  and  which,  I 
dare  say,  many  others  will  deem  equally  decisive, 
in  support  of  his  representation.  And  yet  I  will 
again  assert,  and  hope  I  shall  make  it  appear  to 
the  satisfaction  of  every  candid  reader,  that  that 
representation  is  destitute  of  all  solid  support  in 
historical  verity. 

The  first  testimony  which  Bishop  Ives  adduces  in 
support  of  his  former  statement  is  in  the  follow- 
ing words :  ^*  In  his  commentary  upon  1  Tim.  iv.  14 
— a  passage  so  much  relied  upon  by  Presbyterians — 
he  gives  an  interpretation  which  makes  it  perfectly 
consistent  with  the  episcopal  character  of  Timothy." 


VIEWS   OF  PRELACY.  141 

The  passage  in  our  common  translation  reads 
thus :  "  Neglect  not  the  gift  that  is  in  thee,  which 
was  given  thee  by  prophecy,  with  the  laying  on  of 
the  hands  of  the  presbytery.'^ 

Calvin's  commentary  is  as  follows  :  "He  admon- 
ishes him  that  he  should  employ  the  grace  with 
which  he  was  endowed  for  the  edification  of  the 
Church.  For  it  is  not  the  will  of  the  Lord  that 
those  talents  should  perish  or  be  uselessly  buried 
in  the  earth  which  he  has  deposited  with  any  one 
to  be  profitably  used.  To  neglect  a  gift  is,  through 
sloth  and  negligence,  to  leave  it  unemployed;  so 
that,  given  up,  as  it  were,  to  rust,  it  is  worn  out 
in  no  useful  service.  Therefore  let  each  of  us 
consider  what  abilities  he  has,  that  he  may  sedulous- 
ly apply  them  to  some  use.  He  says  that  the  grace 
was  given  to  him  by  prophecy.  How?  Doubt- 
less (as  we  said  before)  because  the  Holy  Spirit, 
by  revelation,  had  appointed  Timothy  to  be  set 
apart  to  the  office  of  a  pastor ;  for  he  had  not  been 
chosen  only  by  man's  judgment,  as  is  customary, 
i)ut  by  the  previous  declaration  of  the  Spirit. 
He  says  that  it  was  conferred  with  the  laying  on 
oi'  hands;  by  which  is  meant  that,  in  addition  to 
the  ministerial  office,  lie  was  furnished  also  with 
the  necessary  gifts.     It  was   a  settled  custom  of 


142  JOHN  CALVIN. 

the  apostles  to  ordain  ministers  with  the  imposi- 
tion of  hands;  and,  indeed,  concerning  this  rite, 
its  origin  and  meaning,  I  have  treated  at  some 
length  before,  and  a  full  account  may  be  found  in 
the  Institutes.  Presbytery. — Those  who  think  that 
this  is  a  collective  name  put  for  the  college  of  pres- 
byters, in  my  opinion,  judge  correctly,  although, 
all  things  considered,  I  confess  there  is  another 
sense  not  unsuitable — viz.,  that  it  is  the  name  of 
an  office.  This  ceremony  he  has  put  for  the  act 
of  ordination  itself.  Therefore  the  sense  is  that 
Timothy,  when  called  to  the  ministry  by  the  voice 
of  the  prophets,  and  afterward  ordained  by  the  cus- 
tomary rite,  was  at  the  same  time  furnished  for  the 
performance  of  his  duties  by  the  grace  of  the  Holy 
Spirit ;  whence  we  infer  that  it  was  not  an  empty 
rite,  for  to  that  consecration  which  men  represent- 
ed figuratively  by  the  imposition  of  hands  God 
imparted  reality  (or  ratification)  by  his  Spirit." 

This  is  Calvin's  commentary  on  the  passage  in 
question,  and  it  is  the  whole  of  it.  He  who  can 
find  anything  favorable  to  the  episcopal  character 
of  Timothy  here  will  be  at  no  loss  to  find  it  in  any 
document  on  earth.  The  only  thing  noticeable  in 
its  bearing  on  that  point  is  the  suggestion  that, 
while  in  the  opinion  of  Calvin  the  term  "  pres- 


VIEWS  OP  PRELACY,  1  !'3 

byteiy  "  means  the  bench  or  body  of  presbyters, 
it  may  mean  the  name  of  an  office.  But  surely 
this  makes  nothing  in  favor  of  the  prelatical  char- 
acter of  Timothy ;  for  if  this  sense  be  admitted, 
then  the  statement  will  be  that  Timothy  was  or- 
dained to  the  office  of  the  presbyterate,  or  was 
made  a  presbyter. 

The  bishop  next  produces  a  fragment  from  Cal- 
vin's commentary  on  Titus  i.  5,  which  he  thus 
translates:  "We  learn  also  from  this  place  that 
there  was  not  then  such  an  equality  among  the 
ministers  of  the  Church  but  that  some  one  had 
the  pre-eminence  in  authority  and  counsel." 

The  candid  reader  will  doubtless  feel  astonished 
when  he  reads  this  passage  in  connection  with  the 
context  in  which  it  stands.     It  is  as  follows : 

"  Presbyters  or  elders,  it  is  well  known,  are  not 
so  denominated  on  account  of  their  age,  since 
young  men  are  sometimes  chosen  to  this  office — as, 
for  instance,  Timothy — but  it  has  always  been 
customary,  in  all  ages,  to  apply  this  title  as  a 
term  of  honor  to  all  rulers,  and  as  we  gather  from 
the  First  Epistle  to  Timothy  that  there  were  two 
hinds  of  elders,  so  here  the  context  shows  that  no 
other  than  teaching-elders  are  to  be  understood 
— that  is,  those  who  were  ordained  to  teach — be-- 


144  JOHN  CALVIN. 

cause  the  same  i)ersons  are  immediately  afterward 
called  bishops.  It  may  be  objected  that  too  much 
power  seems  to  be  given  to  Titus  when  the  apos- 
tle commands  him  to  appoint  ministers  over  all 
the  churches.  This,  it  may  be  said,  is  little  less 
than  kingly  power,  for  on  this  plan  the  right  of 
choice  is  taken  away  from  the  particular  churches, 
and  the  right  of  judging  in  the  case  from  the 
college  of  pastors;  and  this  would  be  to  profane 
the  whole  of  the  sacred  discipline  of  the  Church. 
But  the  answer  is  easy.  Everything  was  not  en- 
trusted to  Titus  as  an  individual,  nor  was  he 
allowed  to  impose  such  bishops  on  the  churches 
as  he  pleased ;  but  he  was  commanded  to  preside  in 
the  elections  as  a  moderator,  as  it  is  necessary  for 
some  one  to  do.  This  is  a  mode  of  speaking  ex- 
ceedingly common.  Thus  a  consul  or  regent  or 
dictator  is  said  to  create  consuls  because  he  con- 
venes assemblies  for  the  purpose  of  making  choice 
of  them.  So,  also,  Luke  uses  the  same  mode  of 
speaking  concerning  Paul  and  Barnabas  in  the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles — not  that  they  alone  author- 
Hatively  appointed  pastors  over  the  churches  with- 
out their  being  tried  or  approved,  but  they  ordain- 
ed suitable  men  who  had  been  elected  or  chosen 
by  the   people.     We   learn    also   from    this   place 


VIEWS  OF  PRELACY.  145 

that  there  was  not  then  such  an  equality  among 
the  ministers  of  the  Church  as  was  inconsistent 
with  some  one  of  them  presiding  in  authority 
and  counsel.  This,  however,  is  nothing  like  the 
tyrannical  and  profane  prelacy  which  reigns  in 
the  papacy :  the  plan  of  the  apostles  was  al- 
together different.'^ 

Is  the  reader  prepared  to  find  Bishop  Ives  sep- 
arating the  last  sentence  but  one  in  this  paragraph 
from  what  preceded  and  what  follows,  and  calling 
it  a  declaration  in  favor  of  episcopacy,  when  its 
whole  tenor  is  directly  the  other  way?  If  the 
bishop  had  read  one  page  farther  on,  he  would 
have  found  in  Calvin's  commentary  on  verse  7 
of  the  same  chapter  the  following  still  more  ex- 
plicit declarations: 

"  Moreover,  this  place  abundantly  teaches  us 
that  there  is  no  difference  between  presbyters  and 
bishops,  because  the  apostle  now  calls  promis- 
cuously by  the  second  of  these  names  those  whom 
he  had  before  called  presbyters;  and,  indeed,  the 
argument  which  follows  employs  both  names  in- 
differently in  the  same  sense,  which  Jerome  hath 
observed,  as  well  in  his  commentary  on  this  pas- 
sage as  in  his  epistle  to  Evagrius.  And  hence 
we   may  see  how  more   has  been  yielded  to  the 

10 


146  JOHN  CALVIN. 

opinions  of  men  than  was  decent,  because,  the 
style  of  the  Holy  Spirit  being  abrogated,  a  cus- 
tom introduced  by  the  will  of  man  prevailed.  I 
do  not,  indeed,  disapprove  of  the  opinion  that 
soon  after  the  commencement  of  the  Church  every 
college  of  bishops  had  some  one  to  act  as  moder- 
ator; but  that  a  name  of  office  which  God  had 
given  in  common  to  all  should  be  transferred  to 
an  individual  alone,  the  rest  being  robbed  of  it, 
was  both  injurious  and  absurd.  Wherefore,  so 
to  pervert  the  language  of  the  Holy  Spirit  as  that 
the  same  expressions  should  convey  a  meaning  to 
us  different  from  that  which  he  intended  partakes 
too  much  of  profane  audacity." 

It  is  worthy  of  remark  that  the  work  which 
contains  this  passage  was  published  in  1549,  in 
the  reign  of  Edward  VI.,  and  when  Calvin  was 
carrying  on  a  friendly  correspondence  with  Arch- 
bishop Cranmer,  yet  he  did  not  hesitate  then  to 
avow  his  Presbyterian  sentiments. 

Again,  in  his  commentary  on  1  Peter  v.  1, 
written  in  1551  and  dedicated  to  Edward  VI. 
of  England,  Calvin  thus  speaks : 

"  Presbyters. — By  this  title  he  designates  pastors 
and  whoever  were  appointed  to  the  government  of 
the   Church.     And    since    Peter   calls   himself   a 


VIEWS  OF  PRELACY.  147 

presbyter,  like  the  rest,  it  is  hence  apparent  that 
this  name  was  common;  which,  indeed,  from 
many  other  passages,  appears  still  more  clearly. 
Moreover,  by  this  title  he  claimed  to  himself  au- 
thority, as  if  he  had  said  that  he  admonished 
pastors  in  his  own  right  because  he  was  one  of 
their  number,  for  among  colleagues  there  ought  to 
be  this  mutual  privilege;  whereas,  if  he  had  en- 
joyed any  pre-eminence  of  authorit^^  among  them, 
he  might  have  urged  that,  and  it  would  have  been 
more  pertinent  to  the  occasion.  But  although  he 
was  an  apostle,  yet  he  knew  this  gave  him  no 
authority  over  his  colleagues,  but  that  he  was 
rather  joined  with  the  rest  in  a  social  office." 

Bishop  Ives,  as  a  further  proof  that  Calvin  was 
jDcrsuaded  of  the  divine  right  of  prelacy,  tells  us 
that  in  his  commentary  on  Gal.  ii.  9  he  represents 
it  as  "  highly  probable  that  St.  James  was  prefect 
of  the  church  of  Jerusalem."  "Now,"  says  he, 
"a  prefect  is  a  chief  and  permanent  ruler  of 
others."  Here,  again,  the  slightest  inspection  of 
what  Calvin  does  really  and  truly  say  will  suffi- 
ciently refute  this  construction  of  his  language. 
It   is   this : 

"  When  the  question  is  here  concerning  dignity, 
it  may  seem  wonderful  that  James  should  be  pre- 


148  JOHN  CALVIN. 

ferred  to  Peter.  Perhaps  that  might  have  been 
done  because  he  was  the  president  (prcefeehis)  of 
the  church  of  Jerusalem.  In  regard  to  what  may 
be  inckided  in  the  title  of  '  pillars/  we  know  that 
it  is  so  ordered  in  the  nature  of  things  that  those 
who  excel  others  in  talents,  in  prudence,  or  in 
other  gifts,  are  also  superior  in  authority.  So,  in 
the  Church  of  God,  by  how  much  any  one  excels 
in  grace,  by  so  much  ought  he  to  be  preferred  in 
honor.  For  it  is  ingratitude — nay,  it  is  impiety — 
not  to  do  homage  to  the  Spirit  of  God  wherever  he 
appears  in  his  gifts.  Hence  it  is  that  as  a  people 
cannot  do  without  a  pastor,  so  every  assembly 
of  pastors  needs  some  one  to  act  as  moderator. 
But  it  ought  ever  so  to  be  ordered  that  he  who 
is  first  of  all  should  be  a  servant,  according  to 
Matthew  xxiii.  12." 

In  his  commentary  on  Acts  xx.  28,  written  in 
1560,  a  few  years  before  his  death,  Calvin  ex- 
presses himself  thus :  "  Concerning  the  word  ^  bish- 
op,' it  is  observable  that  Paul  gives  this  title  to  all 
the  elders  of  Ephesus ;  from  which  we  may  infer 
that,  according  to  Scripture,  presbyters  differed  in 
no  respect  from  bishops,  but  that  it  arose  from 
corruption  and  a  departure  from  primitive  purity 
that  those  who  held  the  first  seats  in  particular  cities 


VIEWS  OF  PRELACY.  149 

began  to  be  called  bishops.  I  say  that  it  arose 
from  corruption — not  that  it  is  an  evil  for  some  one 
in  each  college  of  pastors  to  be  distinguished  above 
the  rest,  but  because  it  is  an  intolerable  presump- 
tion that  men,  in  perverting  the  titles  of  Scripture 
to  their  own  humor,  do  not  hesitate  to  alter  the 
meaning  of  the  Holy  Spirit/^ 

The  bishop's  extract  from  Calvin's  work  De 
Necessitate  Refonnandce  JEcclesiw  will  also  prove, 
when  examined,  quite  as  little  to  his  purpose  as 
any  of  the  preceding.  The  passage,  as  given  by 
him,  is  in  the  following  words :  "  If  they  will  give 
us  such  an  hierarchy  in  which  the  bishops  have 
such  a  pre-eminence  as  that  they  do  not  refuse  to 
be  subject  to  Christ,  then  I  will  confess  that  they 
are  worthy  of  all  anathemas,  if  any  such  shall  be 
found  who  will  not  reverence  it  and  submit  them- 
selves to  it  with  the  utmost  obedience." 

The  passage,  as  really  found  in  Calvin's  work,  is 
as  follows.  After  speaking  of  the  hierarchy  of  the 
Romish  Church,  of  its  claims  to  unintaTupted  suc- 
cession from  the  apostles,  which  he  turns  into  rid- 
icule, and  of  the  gross  departure  of  the  bishops 
from  the  spirit  and  rules  of  the  gospel,  he  says: 
"  If  the  papists  would  exhibit  to  us  such  an  hier- 
archy as  that  the  bishops  should  be  so  distinguish- 


150  JOHN  CALVIN. 

ed  as  not  to  refuse  to  be  subject  to  Christ,  to  rely 
on  hiin  as  their  only  Head,  to  cherish  fraternal 
union  among  themselves,  and  to  be  bound  together 
by  no  other  tie  than  his  truth,  then  I  should  con- 
fess that  there  is  no  anathema  of  which  they  are 
not  worthy  who  should  not  regard  such  an  hierar- 
chy with  reverence  and  obedience.  But  what  like- 
ness to  such  an  one  is  borne  by  that  spurious 
hierarchy  in  which  they  (the  Romanists)  boa'^t?" 
He  then  goes  on  inveighing  against  the  arrogance 
and  tyranny  of  the  bishop  of  Rome  by  name,  and 
showing  how  entirely  different  that  system  is  from 
that  to  which  Christ  and  his  apostles  gave  their 
sanction,  and  even  that  which  prevailed  in  the  time 
of  Cyprian. 

It  is  well  known  that  Calvin  in  all  his  writings 
maintained  that  there  were  bishops  in  the  prim- 
itive Church,  that  every  pastor  of  a  congregation 
was  a  scriptural  bishop ;  of  course  he  might  well 
say  that  if  there  were  any  who  would  not  obey 
such  bishops  as  were  conformed  to  the  will  of 
Christ,  they  were  worthy  of  all  condemnation. 
Some  have  alleged,  indeed,  that  his  use  of  the 
word  "hierarchy"  (hiei^archiam)  in  this  passage 
proves  that  he  could  have  had  reference  to  no 
other  than  a  prelatical  government — that  the  terra 


VIEWS  OF  PRELACY.  161 

is  never  applied  to  any  other.  This  is  an  entire 
mistake.  The  word  "hierarchy''  simply  implies 
"  sacred  "or  "  ecclesiastical  government."  It  may 
be  applied  with  as  much  propriety  to  Presbyteri- 
anism  or  independency  as  to  prelacy.  Calvin 
himself,  in  his  Institutes,  book  iv.,  chap,  v.,  speaks 
of  that  hierarchy  or  spiritual  government  which 
was  left  in  the  Church  by  the  apostles,  and  which 
he  expressly  declares,  in  the  same  chapter,  to  be 
Presbyterian  in  its  form. 

Further,  we  are  told,  it  seems,  by  Durell,  in 
his  View  of  the  Foreign  Reformed  Churches,  that 
Calvin,  in  writing  to  an  "old  friend,"  speaks  of 
the  office  of  bishop  as  of  "divine  institution  or 
appointment."  It  is  true  that  language  of  this 
kind  is  found  in  that  letter,  but  the  most  cursory 
perusal  of  the  whole  letter  will  banish  from  any 
candid  mind  the  idea  that  Calvin  is  here  speaking 
of  diocesan  or  prelatical  episcopacy.  Does  not 
every  intelligent  reader  know  that  that  great  Re- 
former believed  and  uniformly  taught  that  the 
office  of  bishop — that  is,  of  the  primitive,  paro- 
chial bishop — was  a  divine  institution  ?  It  is 
evidently  of  this  parochial  episcopacy  that  he 
speaks  when  writing  to  his  "old  friend"  in  the 
language   above  quoted.      The    duties   which   he 


152  JOHN  CALVIN. 

urges  upon  him  and  the  passages  of  Scripture 
which  he  quotes  to  enforce  his  counsel  all  show 
that  it  is  that  episcopacy  alone  which  he  maintains 
to  be  of  divine  appointment.  A  prelatist  might 
as  well  quote  the  fourth  chapter  of  the  Presby- 
terian Form  of  Government,  in  which  it  speaks 
of  bishops,  as  proof  positive  that  it  maintains  the 
divine  right  of  prelacy,  as  adduce  the  language  cited 
by  Bishop  Ives  to  prove  that  Calvin  was  an  advocate 
for  the  divine  institution  of  prelatical  episcopacy. 

Such  is  the  clear,  indubitable  testimony  that 
the  illustrious  Reformer  of  Geneva  was  guiltless 
of  the  charge  which  has  been  brought  against 
him.  It  is  manifest  that  with  perfect  uniformity 
during  the  greater  part  of  his  public  life,  from 
1535  to  1560,  he  steadfastly  maintained  the  doc- 
trine that  the  apostolic  form  of  church  govern- 
ment was  Presbyterian,  and  not  prelatical;  that 
even  in  works  which  he  dedicated  to  the  king  of 
England  and  to  the  lord  protector,  the  highest 
nobleman  in  the  realm,  he  still  firmly  contended 
for  the  scriptural  doctrine  of  ministerial  parity. 
The  more  closely  I  examine  his  writings,  the  more 
confirmed  is  my  persuasion  that  nothing  which 
wears  a  contrary  aspect  can  be  fairly  produced 
from  tliera. 


VIEWS   OF  FEEL  AC  r.  153 

IL  The  second  allegation  of  Bialiop  Ives  is 
that  this  eminent  man  wished  to  introduce  prel- 
acy into  the  church  of  Geneva,  and  that  he  united 
with  others  in  requesting  the  English  bishops  to 
impart  it  to  them. 

If  I  do  not  greatly  mistake,  this  allegation 
also  is  capable  of  being  completely  refuted.  But, 
as  I  have  already  trespassed  so  far  on  the  columns 
of  your  paper,  I  shall  postpone  to  another  week 
the  remarks  and  the  testimony  which  I  have  to 
adduce  in  regard  to  that  point.  In  the  mean 
time,  I  am,  sir,  with  great  respect,  your  obedient 
servant,  Samuel  Miller. 

Peikceton,  November  20,  1841. 

LETTER  II. 

The  second  allegation  of  Bishop  Ives  is  that 
Calvin  was  desirous  of  introducing  diocesan  epis- 
copacy into  the  church  of  Geneva,  and  that  he, 
with  others,  requested  the  bishops  of  England  to 
impart  it  to  them. 

I  have  expressed  a  strong  confidence  that  this 
statement  is  utterly  unfounded  and  that  it  admits 
of  satisfactory  refutation.  To  attempt  this  ref- 
utation 1  now  proceed. 

And  in  proceeding  to  the  execution  of  this  task 


151  JOHN  CALVIN. 

ray  first  remark  is  that,  anterior  to  all  search  after 
testimony,  the  allegation  is  in  itself  utterly  incred- 
ible. The  character  which  the  friends  of  prelacy 
are  fond  of  imputing  to  John  Calvin  is  that  of  an 
austere,  fierce,  tyrannical  man  fond  of  power  and 
impatient  of  all  opposition.  His  character,  indeed, 
in  this  respect,  has  been  much  misunderstood  and 
shamefully  misrepresented.  A  degree  of  magis- 
terial intolerance  has  been  ascribed  to  him  which 
he  never  manifested.  Still,  it  is  true  that  he 
possessed  great  decision  of  character,  and  that  in 
following  his  convictions  and  laboring  to  attain 
his  favorite  objects  he  was  hardly  ever  exceeded 
by  any  man.  In  this,  it  is  believed,  all  are 
agreed.  Now,  if  this  man,  who  had  such  con- 
trolling influence  in  Geneva,  had  been  desirous 
of  introducing  prelacy  into  his  own  pastoral  charge 
and  the  neighboring  churches,  who  was  there  to 
prevent  it?  Surely  not  the  government.  The 
secular  rulers  had  been  accustomed  to  prelacy  all 
their  lives,  and  would,  no  doubt,  have  regarded 
it  with  more  favor  than  any  other  form  of  eccle- 
siastical regimen  that  could  be  proposed  to  them. 
Not  his  ministerial  colleagues,  for  though  they 
were  by  no  means  timid  or  pliant  men,  yet  his 
influence  over  them  seems   to  have  been  of  the 


VIEms  OF  PRELACY.  166 

highest  kind ;  and  if  prelacy  had  been  introduced, 
who  can  doubt  that  Calvin  himself  would  have 
been  the  prelate?  Who  else  would  have  been 
thought  of?  To  him  all  eyes  would  have  been 
instantly  directed,  ^o  one  acquainted  with  the 
history  of  Luther,  Calvin,  and  several  of  the  lead- 
ing Reformers  who  acted  with  them,  can  hesitate 
a  moment  to  believe  that  a  bishop's  chair  was  with- 
in the  reach  of  every  one  of  them  if  he  had  only 
signified  his  wish  to  the  eifect,  or  even  intimated 
his  belief  that  such  an  office  was  warranted  by  the 
word  of  God. 

But  suppose,  in  the  face  of  all  this  improbability, 
that  Calvin  did  wish  to  introduce  prelacy;  what 
occasion  had  he  to  go  to  England  for  the  purpose 
of  obtaining  it  ?  Were  there  not  several  men  who 
had  been  bishops  under  the  papacy  who  espoused 
the  cause  of  the  Reformation,  and  who  would  have 
been  ready  to  lend  their  aid  toward  the  consumma- 
tion of  the  desired  object?  Besides,  our  episcopal 
brethren  tell  us  that  the  Waldenses  always  had  bish- 
ops, in  their  sense  of  that  title,  among  them.  If 
so,  where  was  the  difficulty  of  Calvin  and  his  col- 
leagues obtaining  the  episcopal  succession,  as  the 
modern  phrase  is,  from  that  body  of  pious  believers  ? 
yie  know,  indeed,  that  this  assertion  concerning  the 


156  JOHN  CALVIN. 

AValdenses  is  unfouuded.  They  bad  no  sucli  bisli- 
ops.  They  themselves,  in  their  correspondence 
with  QEcolainpadius  in  1530,  explicitly  inform  him 
that  they  had  not ;  still,  as  an  m^gumentum  ad  hom- 
inem,  the  argument  is  conclusive.  Either  there  were 
no  such  bishops  among  that  pious,  devoted  people, 
as  prelatists  claim,  or  Calvin,  who  knew  the  Wal- 
denses  intimately  and  had  intercourse  with  them, 
acted  a  strange  part  in  seeking  an  ecclesiastical  fa- 
vor from  the  British  Church  which  he  might  quite 
as  conveniently,  to  say  the  least,  have  obtained  from 
churches  in  his  native  country,  where  many  of  them 
were  settled,  as  well  as  in  the  valleys  of  Piedmont. 
But  there  is  another  fact  bearing  on  the  point  no 
less  conclusive.  The  allegation  is  that  Calvin  and 
his  friends  begged  for  episcopal  consecration  from 
Archbishop  Cranmer  in  the  reign  of  Edward  VI., 
when  that  prelate  was  at  the  head  of  the  ecclesiasti- 
cal affairs  of  England.  Now,  in  that  very  reign, 
when  this  wish  and  request  must  have  been  pending, 
as  showu  in  a  former  letter,  we  find  Calvin  repeat- 
edly publishing  to  the  world  his  opposition  to  prel- 
acy and  his  solemn  conviction  that  the  Scriptures 
laid  down  a  different  form  of  church  order,  and  one 
of  these  publications,  containing  one  of  his  strong- 
est assertions  in  favor  of  Presbyterian  ism,  he  ded- 


VIEWS  OF  PRELACY.  157 

icated  to  the  king  of  England  and  sent  to  him  by 
the  hand  of  a  special  messenger ;  on  the  return  of 
which  messenger  Cranraer  wrote  to  Calvin  an 
affectionate  letter  thanking  him  for  his  present  and 
expressing  an  opinion  that  he  could  not  do  better 
than  often  to  write  to  the  king.  (See  Strype's 
Memorials  of  Cranmery  p.  413.)  How  is  it  pos- 
sible for  these  things  to  hang  together  ?  If  Calvin 
was  capable  of  writing  and  printing  these  things, 
and  of  sending  them  by  special  messengers  to  the 
king  and  to  Archbishop  Cranmer,  at  the  very  time 
when  he  was  negotiating  with  Cranmer  to  obtain 
from  him  an  investiture  of  a  different  and  opposite 
kind — if  he  was  capable  of  acting  thus,  it  would 
be  difficult  to  say  whether  he  was  more  of  a  knave 
or  a  fool.  But  I  know  not  that  any  one  who  was 
acquainted  with  the  history  or  the  writings  of  that 
eminent  man  ever  charged  him  with  being  either. 

The  first  evidence  that  Bishop  Ives  adduces  to 
support  his  allegation  that  Calvin  desired  to  obtain 
prelatical  episcopacy  for  his  own  church  in  Gen- 
eva is  drawn  from  his  language  in  the  Confession 
of  Faith  which  he  composed  in  the  name  of  the 
French  churches.  The  friends  of  prelacy  are 
heartily  welcome  to  all  the  testimony  which  can  be 
drawn  from   that  Confession.      Everything   in   it 

14 


158  JOHN  CALVIN. 

which  bears  upon  this  point  is  in  the  following 
words :  "  As  to  the  true  Church,  we  believe  it 
ought  to  be  governed  according  to  the  policy 
which  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  has  established — 
that  is,  that  there  be  pastors,  elders  and  deacons ; 
that  the  pure  doctrine  may  have  its  course;  that 
vices  may  be  corrected  and  repressed;  that  the 
poor  and  all  other  afflicted  persons  be  succored 
in  their  necessities ;  and  that  all  the  assemblies  be 
made  in  the  name  of  God,  in  which  both  great 
and  small  may  be  edified.  We  believe  that  all 
true  pastors,  in  whatsoever  place  they  be,  have  the 
same  authority  and  an  equal  power  under  one 
only  chief,  only  sovereign  and  universal  Bishop, 
Jesus  Christ,  and  for  that  reason  that  no  church 
ought  to  pretend  to  sovereignty  or  lordship  over 
another."  If  this  be  evidence  that  Calvin  wished 
to  introduce  prelacy  into  those  churches  on  the 
Continent  over  which  he  had  influence,  then  I 
know  not  what  testimony  means.  The  Confession 
is  decisively  antiprelatical  in  its  character  through- 
out, and  the  churches  which  were  organized  on  its 
basis  were  as  thoroughly  Presbyterian  as  the  Church 
of  Scotland  ever  was.  In  the  "Articles  of  Eccle- 
siastical Discipline,"  drawn  up  at  the  same  time, 
it  is  declared  that  "  a  president  in  each  colloquy  (or 


VIEWS  OF  PRELACY.  159 

classis)  or  synod  shall  be  chosen  with  a  common 
consent  to  preside  in  the  colloquy  or  synod,  and 
to  do  everything  that  belongs  to  it ;  and  the  said 
office  shall  end  with  each  colloquy  or  synod  and 
council/'  (See  LavaFs  History  of  the  Reforma- 
tion in  France,   vol.   i.,   p.    118.) 

Another  source  of  proof  on  which  Bishop  Ives 
relies  to  show  that  Calvin  wished  for  and  endeav- 
ored to  obtain  prelacy  from  the  English  Church 
is  found  in  the  language  which  he  addressed  to  the 
clergy  of  Cologne,  blaming  them  for  attempting  to 
depose  their  archbishop  because  he  was  friendly  to 
the  Reformation.  But  could  not  Calvin  reprobate 
this  conduct  without  believing  in  the  divine  institu- 
tion of  the  office  which  the  archbishop  held  ?  Sup- 
pose Bishop  Ives  should  become  a  Calvinist  as  to  his 
theological  creed,  and  suppose  the  Episcopal  clergy 
of  North  Carolina  should  conspire  on  that  account 
alone  to  expel  him  from  his  diocese ;  might  not  the 
firmest  Presbyterian  in  the  State  remonstrate  against 
their  conspiracy  without  being  an  advocate  for  the 
divine  right  of  prelacy  ?  Might  he  not  consider  it 
much  better  to  retain  in  an  influential  station  one 
who  was  an  advocate  for  evangelical  truth,  rather 
than  thrust  him  out  to  make  way  for  an  errorist  in 
doctrine  as  well  as  in  church  order  ? 


160  JOHN  CALVIN. 

A  further  testimony  to  which  he  appeals  is  that 
Calvin,  in  writing  to  Ithavius,  a  Polish  bishop, 
styles  him  ^^  illustrious  and  reverend  lord  bishop." 
He  addresses  him  illustris  et  reverende  domine. 
The  last  word,  which  is  equivalent  to  "  sir,'^  Cal- 
vin addresses  to  the  humblest  curate  to  whom  he 
writes.  Of  course  no  stress  can  be  laid  on  that 
title.  But  what  does  the  venerable  Reformer  say 
to  this  Polish  dignitary  ?  Urging  him  to  give  his 
influence  decisively  in  favor  of  the  Reformation, 
he  writes  to  him  in  the  following  faithful  language, 
a  part  of  which  only  Bishop  Ives  quotes ;  "  It  is 
base  and  wicked  for  you  to  remain  neutral  when 
God,  as  with  outstretched  hand,  calls  you  to  defend 
his  cause.  Consider  what  place  you  occupy,  and 
what  burden  has  been  laid  upon  you."  This  is 
proof  enough  that  Calvin  thought  that  Ithavius 
had  been  placed  in  his  station  by  the  providence 
of  God,  and  that  he  was  bound  to  employ  all  the 
influence  and  authority  connected  with  that  station 
for  promoting  the  cause  of  truth,  and  certainly 
nothing  more.  I  take  for  granted  that  Bishop 
Ives  believes  that  the  tyrant  Nero  was  raised  to 
the  imperial  throne  by  the  providence  of  God, 
that  in  that  station  he  had  a  great  opportunity 
for  doing  good  if  he   had   been   inclined  to  im- 


VIEWS  OF  PRELACY.  161 

prove  it,  and  that  any  benevolent  inhabitant  of 
his  dominions  might  have  addressed  his  emperor 
in  the  very  language  addressed  to  Ithavius  witli- 
out  believing  in  the  divine  right  of  monarchy. 

An  extract  of  a  letter  from  Calvin  to  the  king 
of  Poland  is  also  brought  forward  to  show  that 
he  was  an  advocate  for  prelacy.  Let  the  passage 
which  Bishop  Ives  refers  to  be  seen  in  its  connec- 
tion, and  its  worthlessness  for  his  purpose  will 
be  manifest  to  the  most  cursory  reader.  It  is  as 
follows:  ''Finally,  it  is  ambition  and  arrogance 
alone  that  have  invented  this  primacy  which  the 
Romanists  hold  up  to  us.  The  ancient  Church 
did  indeed  institute  patriarchates,  and  also  aj)- 
pointed  certain  primacies  to  each  province,  in  or- 
der that  by  this  bond  of  concord  the  bishops  might 
continue  more  united  among  themselves,  just  as 
if,  at  the  present  day,  one  archbishop  were  set  over 
the  kingdom  of  Poland — not  to  bear  rule  over  the 
others  or  to  arrogate  to  himself  authority  of  which 
the  others  are  robbed,  but  for  the  sake  of  order  to 
hold  the  first  place  in  synods  and  to  cherish  a  holy 
union  among  his  colleagues  and  brethren.  Then 
there  might  be  either  provincial  or  city  bishops,  to 
attend  particularly  to  the  preservation  of  order; 
inasmuch  as  nature  dictates  that  out  of  each  col- 
li 


162  JOHN  CALVIN. 

lege  one  should  be  chosen  on  whom  the  chief  care 
should  devolve.  But  possessing  an  office  of  mod- 
erate dignity — that  is,  to  the  extent  of  a  man's 
ability — is  a  different  thing  from  embracing  the 
whole  world  in  unlimited  jurisdiction/' 

Here  it  is  evident  that  by  the  ^*  ancient  Church '' 
Calvin  meant,  not  the  apostolic  Church — for  then 
there  were  no  patriarchates,  as  all  agree — but  the 
Church  as  it  stood  in  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries. 
He  thus  fully  explains  this  phrase  in  his  letter  to 
Sadolet,  as  well  as  in  his  Institutes.  And  it  is  no 
less  evident  that  by  the  man  in  each  college  of 
ecclesiastics  on  whom  the  "  chief  care  was  to  be 
devolved"  he  meant  only  a  standing  moderator, 
such  as  he  describes  in  those  extracts  from  his 
commentary  which  I  detailed  in  my  last  letter. 
And  besides,  as  Calvin  knew  that  prelacy  was 
universally  and  firmly  established  in  Poland,  he 
was  much  more  anxious  to  plead  for  the  promotion 
of  the  doctrines  and  spirit  of  true  religion  in  that 
country  than  for  pulling  down  its  hierarchy.  Hence 
he  was  disposed  to  treat  the  latter  with  indulgence 
if  the  former  might  have  free  course. 

But  Bishop  Ives  seems  to  lay  the  greatest  stress 
for  proof  of  his  assertion  on  a  statement  found  in 
Strype's  Memorial  of  Or^anmer,  p.  207,  and  in  his 


VIEWS  OF  PRELACY.  163 

Life  of  Bifihop  Parker,  pp.  69,  70.  The  story,  as 
related  by  Strype,  is  that  Bullinger  and  Calvin  and 
others  wrote  a  joint  letter  to  King  Edward,  offer- 
ing to  make  him  their  defender,  and  to  have  such 
bishops  in  their  churches  as  there  were  in  England. 
The  story  is  a  blind  and  incredible  one.  Let  us 
see  the  letter,  and  we  will  then  believe  that  such 
a  communication  was  sent,  and  not  till  then.  The 
truth  is  Bonner  and  Gardiner  were  popish  bishops, 
entirely  out  of  favor  during  the  reign  of  King 
Edward,  and  a  letter  directed  to  the  king  would 
be  by  no  means  likely  to  fall  into  their  hands. 
Calvin  is  known  to  have  kept  up  a  constant  cor- 
respondence with  Archbishop  Cranmer  as  long  as 
the  latter  lived.  Cranmer  consulted  him  frequent- 
ly, sought  his  counsel  on  a  variety  of  occasions, 
and  requested  his  aid  in  conducting  the  affairs  of 
the  English  Eeformation.  The  archbishop  sent 
to  Calvin  the  first  draft  of  the  English  Liturgy 
early  in  the  reign  of  Edward,  requesting  his  advice 
and  criticism  respecting  it.  Calvin  returned  it, 
saying  that  he  found  in  it  some  tolerabiles  ineptias 
("  tolerable  fooleries '')  which  he  could  wish  might 
be  corrected.  This  criticism  was  well  received, 
and  the  Liturgy  was  corrected  agreeably  to  his 
wishes.     This  fact  is  attested  by  Dr.  Heylin,  one 


164  '         JOHN  CALVIN. 

of  the  bitterest  opponents  of  Calvin  and  of  Pres* 
byterianism  that  ever  lived.  "  The  first  Liturgy," 
says  he,  "  was  discontinued,  and  the  second  superin- 
duced upon  it,  to  give  satisfaction  unto  Calvin's 
cavils,  the  curiosities  of  some  and  the  mistakes  of 
others,  his  friends  and  followers  "  (History  of  the 
Fresbyterimis,  pp.  12,  207).  Dr.  Nichols,  also, 
the  author  of  a  Commentajry  on  the  Common  Prayer-, 
bears  testimony  to  the  same  fact  in  the  following 
statement :  "  Four  years  afterward  the  Book  of 
Common  Prayer  underwent  another  review,  where- 
in some  ceremonies  and  usages  were  laid  aside 
and  some  new  prayers  added  at  the  instance  of 
Mr.  Calvin  of  Geneva,  and  Bucer,  a  foreign  divine 
who  was  invited  to  be  a  professor  at  Cambridge " 
(Preface  to  his  Commentary)  p.  5). 

The  fact  is  Cranmer  and  his  coadjutors  in  the 
English  Eeformation  had  to  struggle  with  great 
difficulties.  The  papists,  on  the  one  hand,  assailed 
and  reproached  them  for  carrying  the  Reformation 
too  far ;  while  some  of  the  most  pious  dignitaries 
and  others  in  the  Church  thought  it  was  not  carried 
far  enougli.  In  these  circumstances,  Cranmer  wrote 
often  to  the  Reformers  on  the  Continent,  and  sought 
advice  and  countenance  from  them,  and  to  none 
more   frequently  than   to   Calvin,  who  wrote,  we 


VIEWS  OF  PRELACY.  165 

are  told,  in  return,  much  to  encourage  and  animate 
Cranmer.  Among  other  expressions  of  opinion, 
we  are  informed  that  Calvin  blamed  Bishops 
Hooper  and  Latimer,  those  decided  friends  of 
evangelical  truth,  for  their  persevering  scruples 
respecting  the  habits  or  ecclesiastical  vestments, 
which  were  then  the  subject  of  so  much  controversy. 
He  gave  it  as  his  opinion  that  where  the  great  and 
vital  principles  of  the  gospel  were  at  stake  it  was 
bad  policy  for  the  friends  of  true  religion  to  allow 
themselves  to  be  alienated  and  divided  by  questions 
concerning  clerical  dress,  or  even  the  external  order 
of  the  Church.  The  kind  and  friendly  things  of 
this  nature  which  he  so  frequently  uttered  were 
no  doubt  misinterpreted  as  indicating  a  more  fa- 
vorable opinion  of  the  prelacy  of  England  than 
he  really  entertained  or  ever  meant  to  express. 

I  shall  trespass  on  your  patience,  Mr.  Editor, 
only  by  making  one  statement  more.  Calvin  was 
so  far  from  ever  alleging  that  the  Genevan  form 
of  church  government  was  adopted  by  him  from 
necessity  and  not  from  choice  that  he,  on  the  con- 
trary, steadfastly  maintained  that  it  was  strictly 
agreeable  to  the  word  of  God  and  that  which  he 
felt  himself  bound  by  obedience  to  Christ  to  estab- 
lish and  defend.    "  Besides,"  says  he,  *^  that  our  con- 


166  JOHN  CALVIK 

science  acquits  us  in  the  sight  of  God  the  thing 
itself  will  answer  for  us  in  the  sight  of  men.  No- 
body has  yet  appeared  that  could  prove  that  we 
have  altered  any  one  thing  which  God  has  com- 
manded, or  that  we  have  appointed  any  new  thing 
contrary  to  his  word,  or  that  we  have  turned  aside 
from  the  truth  to  follow  any  evil  opinion.  On  the 
contrary,  it  is  manifest  that  we  have  reformed  our 
Church  MERELY  BY  God's  WORD,  which  is  the  only 
rule  by  which  it  is  to  be  ordered  and  lawfully  de- 
fended. It  is,  indeed,  an  unpleasant  work  to  alter 
what  has  been  formerly  in  use,  were  it  not  that  the 
order  which  God  has  once  fixed  must  be  esteemed  by 
us  as  sacred  and  inviolable ;  insomuch  that  if  it  has 
for  a  time  been  laid  aside,  it  must  of  necessity  (and 
whatever  the  consequences  should  prove)  be  restored 
agaift.  No  antiquity,  no  prescription  of  custom, 
may  be  allowed  to  be  an  obstacle  in  this  case  that 
the  government  of  the  Church  which  God  has  ap- 
pointed should  not  be  perpetual,  since  the  Lord 
himself  has  once  fixed  it"  {Epis.  ad  quendam 
Oaratum,  in    Calvin  Epist,   p.   386). 

Such  are  the  testimonies  which  satisfy  me  that 
Calvin  was  a  sincere  and  uniform  advocate  of 
Presbyterian  church  government,  and  that  if  he 
ever  wished  to  introduce   prelacy  into  his  church 


VIEWS  OF  PRELACY.  167 

at  Geneva  we  must  despair  of  establishing  any 
fact  by  historical  records.  That  Bishop  Ives  was 
a  real  believer  in  the  truth  of  all  that  he  asserted 
I  never  entertained  the  least  doubt.  But  I  have 
as  little  doubt  that  it  is  totally  destitute  of  any 
solid  foundation.  Either  Calvin  had  no  such  de- 
sire as  the  bishop  ascribes  to  him,  or  he  was  one 
of  the  most  weak  and  inconsistent  men  that  ever  ' 
breathed.  That,  nobody  ever  thought  him. 
I  am,  Mr.  Editor,  yours  respectfully, 

Samuel  Miller. 

Pbzngetok,  December  6, 1841. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

TESTIMONIALS  TO  CALVIN. 

rpHE  estimation  in  which  the  character  and  the 
learning  of  Calvin    have  been   held   may  be 
seen  from  the  following  testimonies. 

"  He  lived  fifty-four  years  ten  months  and  seven- 
teen days,  half  of  which  time  he  passed  in  the  sa- 
cred ministry.  His  stature  was  of  a  middle  size, 
his  complexion  dark  and  pallid,  his  eyes  brilliant 
even  till  death,  expressing  the  acuteness  of  his 
understanding.  He  lived  nearly  without  sleep. 
His  power  of  memory  was  almost  incredible,  and 
his  judgment  so  sound  that  his  decisions  often  seem- 
ed almost  oracular.  In  his  words  he  was  sparing, 
and  he  despised  an  artificial  eloquence ;  yet  was  he 
an  accomplished  writer,  and  by  the  accuracy  of  his 
mind  and  his  practice  of  dictating  to  an  aman- 
uensis he  attained  to  speak  little  differently  from 
what  he  wo.uld  have  written.  The  consistency  and 
the  uniformity  of  his  doctrine,  from  first  to  last, 
are  scarcely  to  be  paralleled.     Nature  had  formed 

168 


TESTIMONIALS  TO  CALVIN.  169 

him  grave,  yet  in  the  intercourse  of  social  life  no 
one  showed  more  suavity.  He  exercised  great  fl^r- 
bearance  toward  all  such  infirmities  in  others  as  are 
consistent  with  integrity,  not  overawing  his  weaker 
brethren,  but  toward  flattery  and  every  species  of 
insincerity,  especially  where  religion  was  concerned, 
he  was  severe  and  indignant.  He  was  naturally 
irritable,  and  this  fault  was  increased  by  the  ex- 
cessive laboriousness  of  his  life;  yet  the  Spirit  of 
God  had  taught  him  to  govern  both  his  temper  and 
his  tongue.  That  so  many  and  so  great  virtues, 
both  in  public  and  in  private  life,  should  have 
called  forth  against  him  many  enemies  no  one  will 
wonder  who  duly  considers  what  has  ever  befallen 
eminent  men,  both  in  sacred  and  in  profane  history. 
Those  enemies  brand  him  as  a  heretic,  but  Christ 
suffered  under  the  same  reproach.  He  was  ex- 
pelled, say  they,  from  Geneva.  True,  he  was; 
but  he  was  solicited  to  return.  He  is  charged 
with  ambition — yea,  with  aspiring  at  a  new  pope- 
dom—  an  extraordinary  charge  to  be  brought 
against  a  man  who  chose  his  kind  of  life,  and  in 
this  state,  in  this  church,  which  I  might  truly  call 
the  very  seat  of  poverty.  They  say  again  that  he 
coveted  wealth.  Yet  all  his  worldly  goods,  includ- 
ing his  library,  which  brought  a  high  price,  scarce- 


170  JOHN  CALVIN. 

ly  amounted  to  three  hundred  crowns.  Well  might 
he  say  in  his  preface  to  the  book  of  Psalms,  '  That 
I  am  not  a  lover  of  money,  if  I  fail  of  persuading 
men  while  I  live,  my  death  will  demonstrate.' 
How  small  his  stipend  was  the  senate  knows ;  yet 
they  can  bear  witness  that,  so  far  from  being  dis- 
satisfied with  it,  he  pertinaciously  refused  an  in- 
crease when  it  was  offered  him.  He  delighted,  for- 
sooth, in  luxury  and  indulgence!  Let  his  labors 
answer  the  charge.  What  accusations  will  not 
some  men  bring  against  him  ?  But  no  refutation 
of  them  is  wanting  to  those  persons  who  knew  him 
while  he  lived,  and  they  will  want  none  among 
posterity  with  men  of  judgment  who  shall  collect 
his  character  from  his  writings.  Having  given 
with  good  faith  the  history  of  his  life  and  of  his 
death,  after  sixteen  years'  observation  of  him  I 
feel  myself  warranted  to  declare  that  in  him  was 
proposed  to  all  men  an  illustrious  example  of  the 
life  and  death  of  a  Christian;  so  that  it  will  be 
found  as  difficult  to  emulate  as  it  is  easy  to  ca- 
lumniate him." — Beza. 

"  It  is  impossible  to  refuse  him  the  praise  of  vast 
knowledge,  exquisite  judgment,  a  penetration  which 
is  uncommon,  a  prodigious  memory  and  admirable 
temperance   and   sobriety.  .  .  .  Affairs  public  and 


TESTIMONIALS  TO  CALVIN.  171 

private,  ecclesiastical  and  civil,  occupied  him  in 
succession,  and  often  altogether.  Consulted  from 
all  quarters  both  at  home  and  abroad,  carrying  on 
a  correspondence  with  all  the  churches  and  all  the 
learned  men  of  Europe,  with  the  princes  and  other 
persons  of  high  distinction  who  had  embraced  the 
Reformed  religion,  it  seems  almost  inconceivable 
how  one  man  could  be  capable  of  so  many  things, 
and  how  he  should  not  sink  under  the  weight  of 
the  business  which  pressed  upon  him.  The  enemy 
of  all  pomp,  modest  in  his  whole  deportment,  per- 
fectly disinterested  and  generous,  and  even  enter- 
taining a  contempt  for  riches,  he  made  himself  not 
less  respected  for  the  qualities  of  his  heart  than  ad- 
mired for  the  powers  of  his  understanding.  When 
the  council  wished  to  make  him  a  present  of  five 
and  twenty  crowns  on  occasion  of  his  continued 
illness,  he  refused  to  accept  it,  because,  he  said, 
since  he  then  rendered  no  service  to  the  church,  so 
far  from  meriting  any  extraordinary  recompense  he 
felt  scruples  about  receiving  his  ordinary  stipend ; 
and  a  few  days  before  his  death  he  absolutely  re- 
fused a  part  of  his  appointments  which  had  become 
due.  .  .  .  He  always  presided  in  the  company  of 
pastors.  Without  envy  they  saw  him,  by  reason 
of  his  rare  merit,  which  raised  him  far  above  al] 


172  JOHN  CALVIN. 

his  colleagues,  occupy  the  first  place.  .  .  .  \VTien 
his  frequent  illnesses  prevented  his  being  regular- 
ly present  among  them,  they  had  requested  Beza  to 
supply  his  place.  A  few  days  after  Calvin's  death 
Beza  declined  this  service,  and  at  the  same  time 
recommended  to  them  not  in  future  to  entrust  an 
office  of  such  importance  permanently  to  any  indi- 
vidual, safely  as  it  might  have  been  committed  to 
Calvin,  and  due  as  it  justly  was  to  his  services, 
.  .  .  but  rather  to  choose  a  fresh  moderator  every 
year,  who  should  simply  be  considered  as  primus 
inter  pares — presiding  among  his  equals.  This 
proposition  was  unanimously  approved,  and  Beza 
himself,  notwithstanding  the  pleas  on  which  he 
would  have  been  excused,  was  immediately  chosen 
the  first  moderator,  as  possessing  all  the  requi- 
site qualifications;  and  the  choice  was  sanctioned 
by  the  council." — Spon^s  History  of  Geneva. 

"  This  [his  superiority  to  the  love  of  money]  is 
one  of  the  most  extraordinary  victories  virtue  and 
magnanimity  can  obtain  over  nature,  even  in  those 
who  are  ministers  of  the  gospel.  Calvin  has  left 
behind  him  many  who  imitated  him  in  his  active 
life,  his  zeal  and  affection  for  the  cause ;  they  em- 
ploy their  voices,  their  pens,  their  steps  and  solici- 
tations, for  the  advancement  of  the   kingdom  of 


TESTIMONIALS  TO   CALVIN.  173 

God ;  but  then  they  take  care  not  to  forget  them- 
selves, and  are,  generally  speaking,  a  demonstration 
that  the  Church  is  a  bountiful  mother,  and  that 
nothing  is  lost  in  her  service.  .  .  .  Such  a  will 
as  this  of  Calvin,  and  such  a  disinterestedness,  is 
a  thing  so  very  extraordinary  as  might  make  even 
those  who  cast  their  eyes  on  the  philosophers  of 
Greece  say  of  him,  *I  have  not  found  so  great 
faith,  no,  not  in  Israel.'  When  Calvin  was  taking 
his  leave  of  those  of  Strasburg  in  order  to  return 
to  Geneva,  they  offered  to  continue  his  freedom 
and  the  revenue  of  a  prebend  they  had  assigned 
him.  He  accepted  the  first,  but  rejected  the  latter. 
.  .  .  He  carried  one  of  his  brothers  with  him  to 
Geneva  without  ever  thinking  of  advancing  him 
to  any  honors,  as  others  would  have  done  with  his 
great  credit.  .  .  .  Even  his  enemies  say  he  had 
him  taught  the  trade  of  a  bookbinder,  which  he 
Bxercised  all  his  life.'' — Bayle. 

"We  should  be  injurious  unto  virtue  itself  if 
we  did  derogate  from  them  whom  their  industry 
hath  made  great.  Two  things  of  principal  mo- 
ment there  are  which  have  deservedly  procured 
him  honor  throughout  the  world :  the  one  his  ex- 
ceeding pains  in  composing  the  Institutions  of 
Christian  Bdiffion,  the  other  his   no   less   indus- 


174  JOHN  CALVIN. 

trious  travails  for  exposition  of  Holy  Scripture 
according  unto  the  same  Institutions.  In  which 
two  things  whosoever  they  were  that  after  him 
bestowed  their  labor,  he  gained  the  advantage  of 
prejudice  against  them  if  they  gainsaid,  and  of 
glory  above  them  if  they  consented.'^ — Hooker. 

"After  the  Holy  Scriptures,  I  exhort  the  stu- 
dents to  read  the  Commentaries  of  Calvin,  .  .  . 
for  I  tell  them  that  he  is  incomparable  in  the  in- 
terpretation of  Scripture,  and  that  his  Commenta- 
ries ought  to  be  held  in  greater  estimation  than 
all  that  is  delivered  to  us  in  the  writings  of  the 
ancient  Christian  fathers;  so  that,  in  a  certain 
eminent  spirit  of  prophecy,  I  give  the  pre-em- 
inence to  him  beyond  most  others — indeed,  beyond 
them  all.  I  add  that,  with  regard  to  what  belongs 
to  commonplaces,  his  Institutes  must  be  read  after 
the  Catechism,  as  a  more  ample  interpretation. 
But  to  all  this  I  subjoin  the  remark  that  they  must 
be  perused  with  cautious  choice,  like  all  other  hu- 
man compositions." — Arminius. 


CHAPTER    XIV. 

CALVIN'S  WIFE. 

rpHE  following  account  of  Calvin's  wife  and  of 
his  domestic  life  and  character  will  at  once  be 
very  interesting  and  will  very  thoroughly  corroborate 
our  views  of  his  character.  It  is  given  in  the 
words  of  Monsieur  G.  de  Felice,  and  is  taken  from 
the  Neic  York  Observer. 


IDELETTE  DE  BUEE. 

In  my  letter  on  the  religious  anniversaries  of 
Paris,  I  said  that  M.  Jules  Bonnet,  a  distinguished 
writer  who  had  spent  several  years  in  collecting 
the  manuscript  correspondence  of  Calvin,  had  read 
at  the  meeting  of  the  Society  for  the  History  of 
French  Protestantism  a  notice  of  Idelette  de  Bure, 
the  wife  of  the  great  Reformer.  The  piece  has 
since  been  published,  and  I  am  happy  to  commu- 
nicate a  sketch  of  it  to  your  readers,  adding  some 
facts  derived  from  other  sources. 

175 


17G  JOHN  CALVIN. 

Idelette  de  Bure  may  be  a  Dew  name  even  to 
well-informed  theologians  who  have  carefully  stud- 
ied the  annals  of  the  Reformation.  I  confess  hum- 
bly that,  for  my  part,  I  had  hardly  read  here  and 
there  three  or  four  lines  on  the  wife  of  Calvin, 
and  that  I  knew  nothing  of  his  domestic  life. 
The  same  ignorance  exists,  probably,  in  a  majority 
of  those  who  will  cast  their  eyes  upon  my  letter. 
M.  Jules  Bonnet  has,  then,  rendered  a  real  and 
important  service  to  the  numerous  friends  of  the 
Genevese  Reformer :  this  notice  of  him  is  an  his- 
torical resurrection. 

Of  Luther's  wife  everybody  has  heard — that 
Catherine  de  Bora  who  left  a  nunnery  to  enter 
the  holy  state  of  matrimony.  The  German  Re- 
former often  alludes  to  the  character,  habits  and 
opinions  of  his  dear  Katy,  as  he  called  her.  He 
shows  us  under  her  different  aspects  this  good, 
simple-hearted  woman  who  had  little  intellectual 
culture,  but  earnest  piety.  He  acquaints  us  mi- 
nutely with  his  domestic  life.  We  weep  with  him 
over  the  grave  of  his  Magdalen ;  we  listen  to  his 
conversations  with  his  son,  to  whom  he  speaks  in 
poetic  terms  of  the  joys  of  paradise.  In  a  word, 
Luther's  house  is  thrown  open  and  posterity  sees 
the  sweet  face  of  Catherine  de  Bora,  drawn  by  the 


CALVIN'S  WIFE.  177 

pencil  of  the  illustrious  Lucas  Kranach,  as  dis- 
tinctly, almost,  as  Luther^s.  Why  is  it  not  the 
same  with  Calvin  and  his  wife?  Why  is  their 
domestic  sanctuary  so  little  known? 

The  chief  reason  is  found  in  the  marked  differ- 
ence between  the  two  great  founders  of  Protest- 
antism. Luther,  the  faithful  representative  ol" 
the  German  or  Saxon  genus,  loved  home-life  and 
attached  value  to  its  least  incidents  ;  he  was  warm- 
hearted, ever  ready  to  introduce  his  friends  to  the 
joys  and  sorrows  of  his  fireside.  He  took  pleasure 
in  sharing  with  his  wife  and  children  all  his  own 
emotions.  Calvin  had  also,  as  we  shall  see,  an 
affectionate  heart  capable  of  strong  attachments, 
but  his  natural  disposition  was  reserved  and  aus- 
tere. He  would  have  regarded  it  as  a  weakness — 
perhaps  an  act  of  guilty  pride — to  draw  frequent 
attention  to  himself,  his  sentiments,  his  personal 
concerns.  He  avoided  expressions  of  warm  feel- 
ing. "  His  soul,  absorbed  by  the  tragic  emotions 
of  the  struggle  he  maintained  at  Geneva  and  by 
the  labors  of  his  vast  propagandism  abroad,"  says 
M.  Bonnet,  "rarely  revealed  itself,  and  only  in 
brief  words,  which  are  the  lightnings  of  moral  sen- 
sibility, revealing  unknown  depths  without  show-  ? 
ing  them  wholly  to  our  view."      No  wonder  that 

12 


178  JOHN  CALVIN. 

Idelette  de  Bure  remained  half  concealed — the 
more  so  as  she  lived  only  a  few  years  and  no 
children  remained  of  their  marriage.  Yet  among 
Calvin's  letters  are  found  interesting  notices  of  this 
woman,  who  was  certainly  worthy  of  the  illustri- 
ous man  who  had  offered  her  his  hand. 

During  his  youth  Calvin  had  not  thought  of 
contracting  the  bonds  of  matrimony ;  he  could  not, 
indeed,  be  married.  Hunted  by  implacable  per- 
secutors; with  no  house  in  which  to  repose  his 
head;  forced  to  hide  himself  sometimes  in  An- 
gouleme,  sometimes  in  Bale ;  preaching  from  place 
to  place  and  celebrating  the  holy  Supper  with  some 
friends  in  the  depths  of  woods  or  in  caves ;  besides, 
occupied  day  and  night  in  composing  his  book  on 
the  Institutions  of  the  Christian  Religion^  which  was 
intended  to  plead  before  the  king,  Francis  I.,  the 
cause  of  his  brethren  who  were  condemned  to 
frightful  punishment, — how  could  he  wish  to  be 
married?  Would  he  have  acted  wisely  to  aggra- 
vate his  evils  by  domestic  cares,  and  to  call  a  wife 
to  bear  half  of  so  heavy  a  burden? 

In  August,  1536,  Calvin  became  professor  and 
pastor  at  Geneva.  He  had  acquired  a  home,  but 
still  his  labors  were  great.  He  had  to  struggle 
against  the  men  called  Libertines,  who,  after  break- 


CALVIN'S   WIFE.  179 

ing  the  yoke  of  Romanism,  abandoned  themselves 
to  the  grossest  licentiousness.  They  viewed  the 
Reformation  as  a  license  to  disregard  all  laws,  hu- 
man and  divine.  These  Libertines  occupied  high 
offices  in  Geneva.  They  were  in  the  councils  of 
state  and  had  behind  them  a  disorderly  populace. 
Calvin  saw  that  the  precious  interests  of  the  evan- 
gelical faith  were  jeoparded.  He  lifted  his  voice 
with  invincible  energy  against  the  Libertines  and 
refused  to  receive  them  at  the  holy  table,  expos- 
ing his  blood,  his  life,  to  the  discharge  of  his 
duty.  Certainly  this  was  not  the  moment  to  seek 
a  wife. 

He  was  banished  from  Geneva  by  the  Libertine 
party  *in  April,  1538;  and,  having  been  invited  by 
the  pious  Bucer  to  come  to  Strasburg,  he  w^as  ap- 
pointed pastor  of  a  parish  of  French  refugees. 
Then,  for  the  first  time,  marriage  seems  to  have 
occupied  his  thoughts — or,  rather,  his  friends,  par- 
ticularly Farel,  tried  to  find  for  him  a  w^ise  and 
good  companion. 

In  a  letter  addressed  to  Farel  in  May,  1539  (he 
was  then  thirty  years  old),  Calvin  sketches  his 
ideal  of  a  wife.  "Remember,"  he  says  to  his 
friend,  "  what  I  especially  desire  to  meet  with  in 
a  wife.     I  am  not,  you  know,  of  the  number  of 


180  JOHN  CALVIN. 

those  inconsiderate  lovers  who  adore  even  the  faults 
of  the  woman  who  charms  them.  I  could  only 
be  pleased  with  a  lady  who  is  sweet,  chaste,  modest, 
economical,  patient  and  careful  of  her  husband's 
health.  Has  she  of  whom  you  have  spoken  to 
me  these  qualities  ?  Come  with  her  .  .  .  ;  if  not, 
let  us  say  no  more." 

Another  letter  to  the  same  pastor,  Farel,  dated 
February  6,  1540,  shows  us  Calvin  eluding  skill- 
fully a  proposal  of  marriage.  "There  has  been 
named  to  me,"  he  says,  "  a  young  lady,  rich,  of 
noble  birth  and  whose  dowry  surpasses  all  I  could 
desire.  Two  reasons,  however,  induce  me  to  de- 
cline :  she  does  not  know  our  language "  (she  was 
of  Alsace,  a  German  province)  "  and  I  think  that 
she  is  too  proud  of  her  birth  and  of  her  education. 
Her  brother,  endowed  with  uncommon  piety,  and 
blinded  by  his  friendship  for  me  so  as  even  to  neg- 
lect his  own  interest,  urges  me  to  the  choice,  and 
the  wishes  of  his  wife  second  his  own.  What 
could  I  do?  I  should  have  been  forced  to  yield 
if  the  Lord  had  not  drawn  me  from  my  embar- 
rassment. I  replied  that  1  would  consent  if  the 
lady,  on  her  part,  would  promise  to  learn  the 
French  language.  She  had  asked  for  time  to  re- 
flect." 


CALVIN'S   WIFE.  181 

The  plan  was  abandoned.  Calvin  had  foreseen 
it,  and  congratulated  himself  on  not  marrying  a 
lady  who,  with  a  large  fortune,  was  far  from  pos- 
sessing the  requisite  simplicity  and  humility. 
This  correspondence  confirms  what  history  relates 
of  Calvin's  character.  He  w^as  eminently  disin- 
terested. A  large  dowry  was  a  small  thing  in 
his  eyes.  Of  what  importance  was  it  for  him  to 
have  a  rich  wife  if  she  was  not  a  Christian? 
This  is  the  same  man  who  refused  all  the  pecuni- 
ary offers  of  the  sovereign  council  of  Geneva,  and 
hardly  left  wherewith  to  pay  the  expenses  of  his 
funeral — the  paltry  sum  of  fifty  silver  crowns. 

A  second  proposal  of  marriage  was  made.  The 
lady  in  question  had  not  any  fortune,  but  she  was 
distinguished  for  her  virtues.  "Her  praise  is  in 
every  mouth,"  writes  Calvin  to  Farel  in  June, 
1540.  So  Calvin  requested  his  brother,  Anthony 
Calvin,  in  connection  with  other  friends,  to  make 
proposals  of  marriage.  Unhappily,  he  learnt  some 
time  after  something  unfavorable  of  the  young 
lady's  character.  He  withdrew  the  proposals,  and 
wrote  sadly  to  his  colleague :  "  I  have  not  yet 
found  a  companion ;  is  it  not  wisest  to  abandon 
my  search?"  Thus  he  was  discouraged  by  these 
fruitless  attempts  and  seemed  to  give  up  the  pros- 


182  JOHN  CALVIN. 

pect  of  marriage,  as  if  the  sweets  of  this  union 
were  not  made  for  him.  It  should  be  remarked 
that  though  he  possessed  such  manly  firmness  in 
questions  of  Christian  faith,  and  though  capable 
of  giving  his  life  for  the  cause  of  truth,  Calvin 
was  timid  and  reserved  in  little  things  of  common 
life.  "I  am,"  he  somewhere  says,  "of  a  shy, 
bashful  disposition ;  I  have  always  loved  quiet, 
and  I  seek  concealment.  I  know  that  I  am  nat- 
urally timid,  soft  and  pusillanimous.'' 

He  preferred  to  remain  a  bachelor  lest  he  should 
be  ill  received  by  the  young  ladies  whom  he  ad- 
dressed or  should  not  make  a  good  choice.  An  unex- 
pected incident  changed  his  resolution.  There  was 
in  Strasburg  a  pious  lady  named  Idelette  de  Bure. 
She  was  a  widow,  and  all  her  time  was  spent  in 
training  the  children  she  had  had  by  her  first  hus- 
band, John  Storder,  of  the  Anabaptist  sect.  She  was 
born  in  a  small  town  of  Guelders,  in  Holland. 
She  came  to  the  capital  of  Alsace  as  a  place  of 
refuge  for  victims  of  persecution.  The  learned 
Dr.  Bucer  knew  Idelette  de  Bure,  and  it  was 
he,  apparently,  who  recommended  her  to  Calvin's 
attention. 

Externally,  there  was  in  this  woman  nothing 
very  attractive.     She  was  encumbered  with  several 


CALVIN'S  WIFE.  183 

children  of  a  first  marriage ;  she  had  no  fortune ; 
she  was  dressed  in  mourning ;  her  person  was  not 
particularly  handsome.  But  for  Calvin  she  pos- 
sessed the  best  of  treasures — a  living  and  tried 
faith,  an  upright  conscience  and  lovely  as  well  as 
strong  virtues.  As  he  afterward  said  of  her,  she 
would  have  had  the  courage  to  bear  with  him  ex- 
ile, poverty,  death  itself,  in  attestation  of  the  truth. 
Such  were  the  noble  qualities  which  won  the  Re- 
former. 

The  nuptial  ceremony  was  performed  in  Septem- 
ber, 1540.  Calvin  was  then  thirty-one  years  and 
two  months  old.  He  was  not  constrained  by  ju- 
venile passion,  but  obeyed  the  voice  of  nature, 
reason  and  duty.  The  papists  who  constantly  re- 
proach the  Reformers  are  mistaken.  Luther  and 
Calvin,  both  of  them,  married  at  mature  age; 
they  did  what  they  ought  to  do,  and  nothing 
more. 

No  pomp  in  Calvin's  marriage,  no  ill-timed  re- 
joicings. All  was  calm  and  grave,  as  suited  the 
piety  and  gravity  of  the  married  pair.  The  con- 
sistories of  Neufchatel  and  of  Valengin,  in  Switz- 
erland, sent  deputies  to  Strasburg  to  attend  this 
marriage — a  striking  mark  of  their  attachment 
and   respect   for  Calvin. 


184  JOHN  CALVIN. 

Hardly  were  the  nuptials  past  when  the  lead- 
er of  the  French  Reformation  was  constrained  to 
leave  the  sweets  of  this  domestic  union.  A  diet 
was  convened  at  Worms,  in  which  most  important 
questions  relative  to  the  future  conditions  of  Prot- 
estantism were  to  be  discussed.  Calvin  was  nat- 
urally called  to  take  part  in  them.  He  went  to 
Worms,  then  to  Ratisbonne,  trying  to  conclude  a 
peace  between  the  two  branches  of  the  Reformation. 
During  his  absence  he  confided  his  wife  to  the  care 
of  Anthony  Calvin  and  the  noble  family  De  Riche- 
bourg,  where  he  fulfilled  for  some  time  the  office 
of  preceptor.  The  plague  broke  out  at  Strasburg, 
to  his  great  alarm,  and  penetrated  the  house  where 
Idelette  de  Bure  lived.  Louis  de  Richebourg  and 
another  inmate  of  the  family  had  fallen  prey  to 
the  disease.  Calvin  trembled  for  his  dear  wife. 
"I  try,''  he  writes,  "to  resist  my  grief:  I  resort 
to  prayer  and  to  holy  meditations  that  I  may  not 
lose  all  courage.''  During  his  residence  at  Ratis- 
bonne,  where  the  fundamental  interests  of  the  new 
churches  were  discussed,  Calvin  received  a  dep- 
utation from  Geneva  begging  him  earnestly  to  re- 
turn to  that  city.  The  Libertine  party  liad  dis- 
closed their  detestable  designs.  The  strong  will 
and  the  moral  power  of  Calvin  were  necessary  to 


CALVIN'S   WIFE.  185 

restore  order.  He  resisted  this  call  a  long  time. 
His  hesitation,  his  tears,  his  anguish,  attested  that 
he  viewed  with  a  sort  of  horror  the  heavy  burden 
which  was  laid  upon  him.  At  last  he  yielded,  say- 
ing, "  Not  my  will,  O  God,  but  thine,  be  done !  I 
offer  my  heart  a  sacrifice  to  thy  holy  will."  And 
on  the  13th  of  September,  1541,  he  returned,  after 
an  exile  of  three  years,  to  the  city  of  Geneva,  the 
fa(!e  and  the  destinies  of  which  he  changed. 

Before  fixing  his  residence  definitely  in  Geneva, 
Calvin  had  determined  to  go  there  and  examine 
for  himself  the  true  state  of  things.  He  went 
alone,  leaving  his  wife  in  Strasburg.  But  he 
had  no  sooner  entered  the  walls  of  the  city  than 
the  Genevese,  fearing  to  lose  once  more  a  man  of 
whom  they  stood  so  much  in  need,  took  all  proper 
measures  to  detain  him.  The  public  councils  de- 
cided that  a  messenger  of  state  should  be  sent  to 
Idelette  at  Strasburg,  and  should  bring  her,  with 
her  household  (these  were  the  terms  of  the  res- 
olution), into  the  house  assigned  to  the  Reformer. 
Thus  did  this  humble  Christian  woman  receive 
honors  decreed  to  a  princess  of  royal  blood,  having 
a  messenger  of  state  to  guide  and  usher  her  into 
her  new  dwelling. 

Recent  researches  have  been  published  concern- 


186  JOHN  CALVIN. 

ing  this  house  which  the  magistrates  gave  for 
Calvin's  use  after  his  return  from  exile.  It  had 
belonged  formerly  to  an  abbey,  and  was  situated 
in  an  agreeable  position  which  opened  extensive 
views  of  the  smiling  borders  of  Lake  Leman  and 
the  majestic  amphitheatre  of  the  Alps.  It  is 
remarkable  that  this  house  is  now  again  in  the 
hands  of  the  Roman  Catholics,  who  have  con- 
verted it  into  a  charitable  institution  under  the 
protection  of  St.  Vincent  of  Paul. 

In  spite  of  the  honors  which  were  accorded 
by  the  political  councils  of  Geneva,  Idelette  de 
Bure  was  not  ambitious  to  play  a  brilliant  part 
in  society.  Always  modest  and  reserved,  practi- 
cing the  virtues  which  suited  her  sex,  and  shunning 
noise  and  pomp  with  as  much  solicitude  as  many 
other  women  seek  them,  she  consecrated  her  days 
to  the  duties  of  her  pious  vocation.  Her  private 
correspondence  with  Calvin  on  the  rare  occasions 
when  he  mentions  his  wife  makes  us  see  her  under 
a  veiy  engaging  aspect.  She  visited  the  poor, 
consoled  the  afflicted  and  received  with  hospitality 
the  numerous  strangers  who  came  without  knock- 
ing at  the  gate  of  the  Reformer.  In  fact,  every 
one  recognized  in  her  the  pious  woman  who  is 
described   in   Scripture   as   having  "a   meek   and 


CALVIN'S  WIFE.  187 

'^aiet  spirit,  which  is  in  the  sight  of  God  of  great 
price,"  and  worthy  to  be  praised  for  ever  for  her 
works. 

Idelette  de  Bure  devoted  herself  particularly  to 
the  care  of  her  husband.  Exhausted  by  his  con- 
stant labors,  Calvin  was  frequently  ill ;  and,  treat- 
ing his  body  roughly,  after  the  example  of  Paul, 
he  persisted  amidst  bodily  suffering  in  performing 
the  multiplied  duties  of  his  office.  Then  his  wife 
would  come  and  tenderly  recommend  him  to  take 
a  little  repose,  and  would  watch  at  his  pillow  when 
his  illness  had  assumed  an  alarming  character.  Be- 
sides (and  this  will  surprise  the  reader),  Calvin  had 
at  times,  like  ordinary  men,  desponding  feelings :  '. 
he  was  inclined  to  low  spirits.  "Sometimes,"  he 
himself  says,  "  although  I  am  well  in  body,  I 
am  depressed  with  grief,  which  prevents  me  from 
doing  anything,  and  I  am  ashamed  to  live  so 
uselessly."  In  these  moments  of  dejection,  when 
the  heroic  Reformer  seemed,  in  spite  of  his  energy 
and  incomparable  activity,  to  sink  under  the  weight 
of  our  common  infirmities,  Idelette  de  Bure  was 
at  hand  with  tender  and  encouraging  words  which 
the  heart  of  woman  can  alone  find,  and  her  hand, 
so  feeble,  yet  so  welcome  and  so  affectionate,  restor- 
er! the  giant  of  the  Reformation  who  made  the 


1S8  JOHN  CALVIN. 

pope  and  kings  tremble  on  their  thrones.  Oh,  the 
precious  support  and  the  magic  power  of  a  religious, 
attentive  and  loving  wife ! 

Who  can  picture  the  salutary  influence  which 
the  humble  Idelette  de  Bure  exercised  over  the  Re- 
former ?  Calvin,  as  M.  Jules  Bonnet  remarks,  was 
often  pained  by  the  opposition  with  which  he  met, 
for  men  submit  reluctantly  to  the  designs  of  genius.' 
"  How  often,"  adds  the  biographer,  "  in  these  years 
of  struggle  and  of  secret  weaknesses  which  his 
correspondence  reveals,  did  he  become  composed 
before  the  courageous  and  sweet  woman  who  could 
make  no  compromise  with  duty !  How  many 
times,  perhaps,  he  was  soothed  and  quieted  by 
one  of  those  words  which  come  from  the  heart! 
.  .  .  And  when  afterward  more  gloomy  days  ar- 
rived, and  the  strife  of  opinions  called  forth  Bolsec, 
Michael  Servetus,  Gentilis  (Idelette  de  Bure  was 
no  longer  alive),  who  can  say  how  much  the  Re- 
former missed  the  advice,  the  sweet  influence,  of 
this  woman?" 

To  return  to  our  narrative.  Idelette's  greatest 
pleasure  was  to  listen  to  the  holy  exhortations  of 
Farel,  Peter  Viret  and  Theodore  de  Beza,  who 
often  sat  at  the  hospitable  table  of  their  illustrious 
chief,  and  who  loved  to  renew  their  courag^e  in  con- 


CALVIN'S  WIFE.  189 

verse  with  him.  Sometimes,  but  rarely,  she  accom- 
panied her  husband  in  his  walks  to  Cologne,  to 
Belle-Rive,  on  the  enchanting  banks  of  Lake 
Leman.  At  other  times,  in  order  to  repose  after 
her  fatigues,  or  when  Calvin  was  called  away  to 
attend  to  the  business  of  the  Reformed  churches, 
Idelette  would  go  and  spend  some  days  at  Lau- 
sanne with  the  wife  of  Viret.  We  see  her  in  this 
Christian  family  in  1545  and  1548,  careful  not  to 
give  trouble  to  her  hosts  and  troubled  because  she 
could  not  render  them  some  good  offices  in  return 
for  those  which  they  had  shown  her. 

Bitter  domestic  afflictions  came  upon  Calvin  and 
his  wife.  The  second  year  of  their  marriage,  in 
the  month  of  July,  1542,  Idelette  had  a  son.  But, 
alas !  this  child,  for  whom  they  had  devoutly  return- 
ed thanks  to  God  and  offered  so  many  fervent 
prayers,  was  soon  taken  from  them  by  death. 
The  churches  of  Geneva  and  of  Lausanne  showed 
the  parents  marks  of  sympathy.  Feeble  mitiga- 
tion of  so  heavy  a  trial !  It  is  easier  to  imagine 
than  to  express  the  grief  of  a  mother's  heart. 
Calvin  lets  us  see  his  sorrow  and  that  of  his  com- 
panion in  a  letter  addressed,  the  10th  of  August, 
1542,  to  Peter  Yiret.  "Salute  all  our  brethren," 
Bays  he;    "salute  also  your  wife,  to  whom   mine 


190  JOHN  CALVIN. 

presents  her  thanks  for  her  tender  and  piom  ^*on- 
solations.  .  .  .  She  would  like  to  answer  them 
with  her  own  hand,  but  she  has  not  even  the 
strength  to  dictate  a  few  words.  The  Lord  has 
dealt  us  a  grievous  blow  in  taking  from  us  our 
son ;  but  he  is  our  Father,  and  knows  what  is 
meet  for  his  children."  Paternal  affection  and 
Christian  resignation  are  both  displayed  in  Cal- 
vin's letters  at  this  time.  In  1544  a  new  trial 
of  this  kind  afflicted  the  hearts  of  these  parents. 
A  daughter  was  born  to  them;  she  lived  only  a 
few  days,  as  we  see  in  a  letter  addressed  in  1544 
to  the  pastor  Yiret.  Again  a  third  child  was 
taken  from  them.  Idelette  wept  bitterly,  and 
Calvin,  so  often  tried,  sought  his  strength  from  the 
Lord;  and  the  thought  occurred  to  him  that  he 
was  destined  only  to  have  children  according  to 
the  faith.  So  he  said  to  one  of  his  adversaries, 
who  had  been  base  enough  to  reproach  him  with 
his  domestic  losses:  "Yes,  the  Lord  has  given 
me  a  son;  he  has  taken  him  from  me.  Let  my 
enemies,  if  they  see  proper,  reproach  me  for  this 
trial.  Have  not  I  thousands  of  children  in  the 
Christian  world?" 

The  health  of  Idelette,  already  delicate,  was  im- 
paired by  these  repeated  griefs.     The  familiar  let- 


CALVIN'S   WIFE.  191 

ters  of  the  Eeformer  inform  us  that  she  passed  her 
last  years  in  a  state  of  languor  and  suffering. 
Often  he  speaks  of  her  as  sick  in  bed  and  asks  the 
prayers  of  her  friends.  Often  he  tells  how  she  has 
revived.  Calvin's  affection  for  his  wife  appears  in 
these  communications.  "Salute  your  wife,"  he 
writes  to  Yiret  in  1548.  "Mine  is  her  sad  com- 
panion in  bodily  weakness.  I  fear  the  issue.  Is 
there  not  enough  evil  threatening  us  at  the  present 
time?  The  Lord  will  perhaps  show  a  more  fa- 
vorable countenance." 

There  was  then  at  Geneva  a  learned  physician 
named  Benedict  Textor.  He  was  a  pious  man, 
full  of  zeal  for  the  Lord,  and  a  particular  friend  of 
Calvin.  He  was  assiduous  in  his  care  of  Idelette, 
and  exhausted  himself  in  seeking  all  the  aid  that 
human  art  could  afford.  But  his  efforts  were  fruit- 
less :  the  fever  increased.  Calvin  felt  for  the  phy- 
sician deep  gratitude,  and  addressed  him  in  the 
month  of  July,  1550,  a  letter  dedicating  to  him  his 
commentary  on  the  Second  Epistle  to  the  Thessa- 
lonians.  Early  in  April,  1549,  Idelette's  condition 
inspired  deep  anxiety.  Theodore  de  Beza,  Hott- 
man,  Desgallers,  and  other  colleagues  of  the  Re- 
former, hastened  to  him  to  console  him  as  well  his 
wife  in  her  last  illness.     Idelette,  sustained  even  to 


192  JOHN  CALVIN. 

the  end  by  piety,  had  consented  to  the  sundering  of 
her  earthly  ties ;  her  only  anxiety  was  concerning 
the  fate  of  the  children  she  had  had  by  her  first 
marriage.  One  of  her  friends  asked  her  to  speak 
of  them  to  Calvin.  "  Why  should  I  do  so  ?"  she 
answered;  "what  concerns  me  is  that  my  children 
may  be  brought  up  in  virtue.  ...  If  they  are  vir- 
tuous, they  will  find  in  him  a  father ;  if  they  are 
not,  why  should  I  recommend  them  to  him  ?''  But 
Calvin  himself  knew  her  wishes,  and  promised  to 
treat  her  children  as  if  they  were  his  own.  "  I  have 
already  recommended  them  to  God,"  said  Idelette. 
— "  But  that  does  not  hinder  that  I  should  take 
care  of  them  also,"  said  Calvin. — "  I  know  well," 
said  she,  "  that  you  will  never  abandon  those  whom 
1  have  confided  to  the  Lord." 

Idelette  saw  with  calmness  the  approach  of  death. 
Her  soul  was  unshaken  in  the  midst  of  her  suf- 
ferings, which  were  accompanied  by  frequent  faint- 
ings.  When  she  could  not  speak,  her  look,  her 
gestures,  the  expression  of  her  face,  revealed  suffi- 
ciently the  faith  which  strengthened  her  in  her  last 
hour.  On  the  morning  of  April  6  a  pastor  named 
Bourgoin  addressed  to  her  pious  exhortation.  She 
joined  in  broken  exclamations  which  seemed  an 
anticipation  of  heaven :  "  Oh,  glorious  resurrection ! 


CALVIN'S  WIFE.  193 

O  Grod  of  Abraham  and  our  fatliers !  .  .  .  Hope 
of  Christians  for  so  many  ages,  in  thee  I  hope." 

At  seven  o'clock  in  the  morning  she  again  faint- 
ed ;  and,  feeling  that  her  voice  was  about  to  fail, 
"Pray,"  said  she;  "oh,  my  friends,  pray  for  me!'* 
Calvin  approaching  her  bedside,  she  showed  her 
joy  by  her  looks.  With  emotion  he  spoke  to  her 
of  the  grace  that  is  in  Christ,  of  the  earthly  pil- 
grimage, of  the  assurance  of  a  blessed  eternity,  and 
closed  by  a  fervent  prayer.  Idelette  followed  his 
words,  listening  attentively  to  the  holy  doctrine  of 
salvation  in  Jesus  crucified.  About  nine  o'clock 
she  breathed  her  last  sigh,  but  so  peacefully  that 
it  was  for  some  moments  impossible  to  discover 
whether  she  ceased  to  live  or  whether  she  was 
asleep. 

Such  is  the  account  Calvin  gives  to  his  colleagues 
of  the  death  of  his  beloved  wife.  Then  he  turned 
sadly  his  eyes  upon  his  now  desolate  state  of  wid- 
owhood. "  I  have  lost,"  he  said  to  Viret  in  a  let- 
ter of  April  7,  1549— "I  have  lost  the  excellent 
companion  of  my  life,  who  never  would  have  left 
me  in  exile  nor  in  pain  nor  in  death.  So  long  as 
she  lived  she  was  a  precious  help  to  me,  never  occu- 
pied with  herself,  and  never  being  to  her  husband 
a  trouble   nor   a  hindrance.  ...  I   suppress   ray 

13 


194  JOHN  CALVIN. 

grief  as  much  as  I  can ;  my  friends  make  it  their 
duty  to  console  me;  but  they  and  myself  effect 
little.  You  know  the  tenderness  of  my  heart, 
not  to  say  its  weakness.  I  should  succumb  if  I 
did  not  make  an  effort  over  myself  to  moderate 
my  affliction."  Four  days  after,  he  wrote  to  his 
old  friend  Farel :  "  Adieu,  dear  and  beloved  broth- 
er ;  may  God  direct  you  by  his  Spirit  and  support 
me  in  my  trial !  I  would  not  have  survived  this 
blow  if  God  had  not  extended  his  hand  from 
heaven.  It  is  he  who  raises  the  desponding  soul, 
who  consoles  the  broken  heart,  who  strengthens  the 
feeble  knees." 

Under  the  weight  of  so  grievous  a  loss,  Calvin, 
however,  was  enabled  to  fulfill  all  the  duties  of  his 
ministry ;  and  the  constancy  he  displayed  amidst 
his  tears  excited  the  admiration  of  his  friends,  as 
we  read  it  in  Yiret^s  reply  to  Calvin.  The  remem- 
brance of  her  whom  he  had  no  more  was  not  ef- 
faced from  his  heart.  Although  he  was  but  forty 
years  of  age,  he  never  thought  of  contracting  other 
ties,  and  he  pronounced  the  name  of  Idelette  de 
Bure  only  with  profound  respect  for  her  virtues 
and  a  deep  veneration  for  her  memory. 

I  close  with  these  words  of  the  biographer : 
"  Calvin  was  great  without  ceasing  to  be  good ;  he 


CALVIN'S  WIFE.  195 

joiued  the  qualities  of  the  heart  to  the  gifts  of 
genius.  .  .  .  He  tasted  domestic  happiness  in  too 
brief  a  union,  the  secrets  of  which,  dimly  revealed 
by  his  correspondence,  shed  a  melancholy  and 
sweet   light  over  his   life."  G.  DE  F. 


APPEKDIX. 


ORIGIN  OF  THE  CALUMNY  THAT  CALVIN  WISH- 
ED TO  ABROGATE  THE  LORD'S  DAY. 

THE  authority  of  Calvin,  too,  has  sometimes 
been  adduced  in  support  of  loose  views  respect- 
ing the  obligation  of  the  fourth  commandment. 
It  is  an  old  and  a  foolish  calumny.  We  take  the 
following  extract  from  Beza,  not  only  to  meet  this 
allegation — for  Beza,  as  the  personal  friend  of  Cal- 
vin, must  have  known  his  sentiments  perfectly — 
but  to  counteract  any  impressions  which  may  be 
circulated  to  the  disparagement  of  the  faithful- 
ness- and  purity  of  the  church  of  Geneva  in  the 
days  of  Calvin : 

"  The  year  1550  was  remarkable  for  its  tranquil- 
lity with  respect  to  the  church.  The  consistory 
resolved  that  the  ministers  should  not  confine  their 
instructions  to  public  preaching — which  was  neg- 
lected by  some  and  heard  with  very  little  advan- 
tage by  others — but  at  stated  seasons  should  visit 
every  family  from  house  to  house,  attended  by  an 
elder  and  a  decurion  of  each  ward,  to  explain  the 
Christian  doctrines  to  the  common  people  and  re- 
quire from  every  one  a  brief  account  of  his  faith. 
196 


APPENDIX.  197 

These  private  visits  were  of  great  use  to  the  church, 
and  it  is  scarcely  credible  how  much  fruit  was  pro- 
duced by  this  plan  of  instruction.  The  consistory 
gave  directions  that  the  celebration  of  the  birth 
of  Christ  should  be  deferred  to  the  following  day, 
and  that  no  festival  should  be  observed  as  holy 
excepting  the  seventh,  which  is  called  the  Lord's 
day.  This  proceeding  gave  offence  to  many,  and, 
for  the  purpose  of  reproaching  Calvin,  there  were 
some  who  circulated  an  unfounded  report  of  his 
abrogating  the  Sabbath  itself." 

MELANCHTHON'S  APPKOBATION  OF  THE  COUKSE 
OF  CALVIN  TOWAED  SEEVETUS. 

M.  d'Aubign^  was  strictly  correct  in  his  histor- 
ical allusions  to  this  celebrated  German  Reformer. 
In  a  letter  from  Melanchthon  to  Calvin  bearing  the 
date  of  October  14,  1554,  we  find  the  following 
sentiments : 

"  Eeverend  AND  DEAR  BROTHER :  I  have  read 
your  book  in  which  you  have  clearly  refuted  the 
horrid  blasphemies  of  Servetus,  and  I  give  thanks 
to  the  Son  of  God,  w^io  was  the  awarder  of  your 
crown  of  victory  in  your  combat.  .  .  .  To  yon, 
also,  the  Church  owes  gratitude  at  the  present  mo- 
ment, and  will  owe  it  to  the  latest  posterity.  .  .  . 
I  perfectly  assent  to  your  opinion." 

**  I  affirm  also,"  says  he  in  another  letter,  dated 
August  20,  "  that  the  Genevese  senate  did  perfectly 
right  in  putting  an  end  to  this  ubi-tinate  man,  who 


198  JOHN  CALVIN. 

could  never  cease  blaspheming,  and  I  wonder  at 
those  who  disapprove  of  this  severity." 

This  opinion  of  Melanchthon  was  sustained  by 
Bui  linger,  Peter  Martyr,  Zanchius,  Farel,  Theo- 
dore Beza,  Bishop  Hall,  and  others.  Your  cor- 
respondent must,  therefore,  admit  that  Melanch- 
thon's  name  is  properly  coupled  with  that  of  John 
Calvin  in  the  affair  of  Servetus,  approve  or  disap- 
prove of  the  sentence  as  we  may.  H.  B. 

THE  TESTIMONY  OF  A  UNITAEIAN. 

The  following  is  from  the  pen  of  George  Ban- 
croft, author  of  The  History  of  the  United  States^ 
formerly  minister  plenipotentiary  to  England,  a 
Unitarian  in  his  religious  opinions: 

''  It  is  in  season  to  rebuke  the  intolerance  which 
would  limit  the  praise  of  Calvin  to  a  single  sect. 
They  who  have  no  admiration  but  for  wealth  and 
rank  can  never  admire  the  Genevan  Reformer ;  for, 
though  he  possessed  the  richest  mind  of  his  age, 
he  never  emerged  from  the  limits  of  frugal  poverty. 
The  rest  of  us  may  be  allowed  to  reverence  his 
virtues  and  regret  his  errors.  He  lived  in  a  day 
when  nations  were  shaken  to  their  centre  by  the 
excitement  of  the  Reformation  ;  when  the  fields  of 
Holland  and  France  were  wet  with  the  carnage  of 
])ei*secution ;  when  vindictive  monarchs  on  the  one 
side  threatened  all  Protestants  with  outlawry  and 
death,  and  the  Vatican  on  the  other  sent  forth  its 
anathemas  and  its  cry  for  blood.     In  that  day,  it 


APPENDIX.  199 

is  too  true,  the  influence  of  an  ancient,  long-estab- 
lished, hardly-disputed  error,  the  constant  danger 
of  his  position,  the  intensest  desire  to  secure  union 
among  the  antagonists  of  popery,  the  engrossing 
consciousness  that  his  struggle  was  for  the  emanci- 
pation of  the  Christian  world,  induced  the  great 
Reformer  to  defend  the  use  of  the  sword  for  the 
extirpation  of  error.  Reprobating  and  lament- 
ing his  adhesion  to  the  cruel  doctrine  which  all 
Christendom  had  for  centuries  implicitly  received, 
we  may,  as  republicans,  remember  that  Calvin 
was  not  only  the  founder  of  a  sect,  but  foremost 
among  the  most  efficient  of  modern  republican 
legislators.  More  truly  benevolent  to  the  hu- 
man race  than  Solon,  more  self-denying  than 
Lycurgus,  the  genius  of  Calvin  infused  endur- 
ing elements  into  the  institutions  of  Geneva  and 
made  it  for  the  modern  world  the  impregnable 
fortress  of  popular  liberty,  the  fertile  seed-plot 
of  democracy. 

"  Again,  we  boast  of  our  common  schools ;  Calvin 
was  the  father  of  popular  education,  the  inventor 
of  the  system  of  free  schools. 

"Again,  we  are  proud  of  the  free  States  that 
fringe  the  Atlantic :  the  Pilgrims  of  Plymouth 
were  Calvinists ;  the  best  influence  in  South  Car- 
olina came  from  the  Calvinists  in  France ;  William 
Penn  was  the  disciple  of  Huguenots;  the  ships 
from  Holland  that  first  brought  colonists  to  Man- 
hattan were  filled  with  Calvinists.     He  that  will 


200  JOHN  CALVIN. 

not  honor  the  memory  and  respect  the  influence 
of  Calvin  knows  but  little  of  the  origin  of  Amer- 
ican liberty. 

"  Or  do  personal  considerations  chiefly  win  ap- 
plause?     Then  no  one  merits  our  sympathy  and 
our  admiration  more  than  Calvin — the  young  exile 
from  France  who  achieved  an  immortality  of  fame 
before  he  was  twenty-eight  years  of  age,  now  boldly 
reasoning  with   the  king  of   France  for  religious 
liberty,  now  venturing  as  the  apostle  of  truth  to 
carry  the  new  doctrines  into  the  heart  of  Italy,  and 
now  hardly  escaping  from  the  fury  of  papal  per- 
secution; the  purest  writer,  the  keenest  dialectician, 
of  his  age,  pushing  free  inquiry  to  its  utmost  verge, 
and  yet  valuing  inquiry  only  as  the  means  of  ar- 
riving at  fixed  principles.     The  light  of  his  genius 
scattered  the  mask  of  darkness  which  Superstition 
had  held  for  centuries  before  the  brow  of  Religion. 
His  probity  was  unquestioned,  his  morals  spotless. 
His  only  happiness  consisted  in  '  the  task  of  glory 
and  of  good,^  for  sorrow  found  its  way  into  all  his 
private  relations.     He  was  an  exile  from  his  place 
of  exile.     As  a  husband,  he  was  doomed  to  mourn 
tlie  premature  loss  of  his  wife ;  as  a  father,  he  felt 
the  bitter  pangs  of  burying  his  only  child.     Alone 
in  the  world,  alone  in  a  strange  land,  he  went  for- 
ward in  his  career  with  serene  resignation  and  in- 
flexible firmness :  no  love  of  ease  turned  him  aside* 
,  from  his  vigils ;  no  fear  of  danger  relaxed  the  nerve 
of  liis  eloquence;  no  bodily  infirmities  checked  the 


APPENDIX.  201 

incredible  activity  of  his  mind ;  and  so  he  contin- 
ued, year  after  year,  solitary  and  feeble,  yet  toil- 
ing for  humanity,  till,  after  a  life  of  glory,  he  be- 
qneathed  to  his  personal  heirs  a  fortune  in  books 
and  furniture,  stocks  and  money,  not  exceeding  two 
hundred  dollars,  and  to  the  world  a  pure  Reforma- 
tion, a  republican  spirit  in  religion,  with  the  kin- 
dred principles  of  republican  liberty." 

TEMPTATION  OF  JOHN  CALVIN. 

The  following  anecdote  of  Calvin,  while  it  does 
much  honor  to  his  moral  and  religious  character,  is 
a  curious  historical  fact  which  deserves  to  be  gen- 
erally known.  It  was  related  at  Geneva  by  Di- 
odati,  one  of  Calvin's  successors,  to  the  first  Lord 
Orrery,  who  flourished  under  the  reign  of  Charles 
I.  The  extract  is  taken  from  The  State  Letters 
and  Memoirs  of  the  Right  Honorable  Roger  Boyle : 

"Eckius,  being  sent  by  the  pope  legate  into 
France,  upon  his  return  resolved  to  take  Geneva 
in  his  way  on  purpose  to  see  Calvin,  and,  if  oc- 
casion were,  to  attempt  seducing  him  to  the  Roman 
Church.  Therefore,  when  Eckius  was  come  with- 
in a  league  of  Geneva,  he  left  his  retinue  there,  and 
went,  accompanied  with  one  man,  to  the  city  in  the 
forenoon.  Setting  up  his  horses  at  an  inn,  he  in- 
quired where  Calvin  lived;  whose  house  being 
showed  him,  he  knocked  at  the  door,  and  Calvin 
himself  came  to  open  to  him.  Eckius  inquiring 
for  Mr,  Calvin,  he  was    told  he  was   the   person. 


202  JOHN  CALVIN. 

Eckius  acquainted  him  that  he  was  a  stranger  and, 
having  heard  much  of  his  fame,  was  come  to  wait 
upon  him.  Calvin  invited  him  to  come  in,  and  he 
entered  the  house  with  him,  where,  discoursing  of 
many  things  concerning  religion,  Eckius  perceived 
Calvin  to  be  an  ingenious,  learned  man  and  desired 
to  know  if  he  had  not  a  garden  to  walk  in.  To 
which  Calvin  replying  that  he  had,  they  both  went 
into  it,  and  there  Eckius  began  to  inquire  of  him 
why  he  left  the  Roman  Church  and  offered  him 
some  arguments  to  persuade  him  to  return;  but 
Calvin  could  by  no  means  be  inclined  to  think  of 
it.  At  last  Eckius  told  him  that  he  would  put 
his  life  in  his  hands,  and  then  said  he  was  Eckius, 
the  pope's  legate.  At  this  discovery  Calvin  was 
not  a  little  surprised,  and  begged  his  pardon  that 
he  had  not  treated  him  with  that  respect  which 
was  due  to  his  quality.  Eckius  returned  the  com- 
pliment, and  told  him  if  he  would  come  back  to 
the  Roman  Church  he  would  certainly  procure  for 
him  a  cardinaFs  cap.  But  Calvin  was  not  to  be 
moved  by  such  an  offer.  Eckius  then  asked  him 
what  revenue  he  had.  He  told  the  cardinal  he  had 
that  house  and  garden  and  fifty  livres  per  annum, 
besides  an  annual  present  of  some  wine  and  corn, 
on  which  he  lived  very  contentedly.  Eckius  told 
him  that  a  man  of  his  parts  deserved  a  greater 
revenue,  and  then  renewed  his  invitation  to  come 
over  to  the  Roman  Church,  promising  him  a  bet- 
ter stipend  if  he  would.     But  Calvin,  giving  liim 


APPENDIX.  203 

thanks,  assured  him  he  was  well  satisfied  with  his 
condition. 

"  About  this  time  dinner  was  ready,  when  he  en- 
tertained his  company  as  well  as  he  could,  excused 
the  defects  of  it  and  paid  him  great  respect.  Eck- 
ius  after  dinner  desired  to  know  if  he  might  not  be 
admitted  to  see  the  church,  which  anciently  was  the 
cathedral  of  that  city.  Calvin  very  readily  answer- 
ed that  he  might ;  accordingly,  he  sent  to  the  offi- 
cers to  be  ready  with  the  keys  and  desired  some  of 
the  syndics  to  be  there  present,  not  acquainting  tbeni 
who  the  stranger  was.  As  soon,  therefore,  as  it 
was  convenient,  they  both  went  toward  the  church, 
and  as  Eckius  was  coming  out  of  Calvin's  house 
he  drew  out  a  purse  with  about  one  hundred  pis- 
toles, and  presented  it  to  Calvin.  But  Calvin  de- 
sired to  be  excused;  Eckius  told  him  he  gave  it 
him  to  buy  books,  as  well  as  to  express  his  respect 
for  him.  Calvin,  with  much  regret,  took  the  purse, 
and  they  proceeded  to  the  church,  where  the  syn- 
dics and  officers  waited  upon  them ;  at  the  sight  of 
whom  Eckius  thought  he  had  been  betrayed  and 
whispered  his  thoughts  in  Calvin's  ear,  but  Calvin 
assured  him  to  the  contrary.  Thereupon  they  went 
into  the  church,  and  Eckius,  having  seen  all,  told 
Calvin  he  did  not  expect  to  find  things  in  so  decent 
an  order,  having  been  told  to  the  contrary.  After 
having  taken  a  full  view  of  everything,  Eckius  was 
returning  out  of  the  church;  but  Calvin  stopped 
him  a  little,  and,  calling  the  syndics  and  officers  to- 


204  JOHN  CALVIN. 

gether,  took  the  purse  of  gold  which  Eckius  had 
given  to  him,  telling  them  that  he  had  received 
that  gold  from  this  worthy  stranger,  and  that  now 
he  gave  it  to  the  poor,  and  so  put  it  all  into  the 
poor-box  that  was  kept  there.  The  syndics  thank- 
ed the  stranger,  and  Eckius  admired  the  charity 
and  modesty  of  Calvin. 

"  When  they  were  come  out  of  the  church,  Cal- 
vin invited  Eckius  again  to  his  house,  but  he  re- 
plied that  he  must  depart,  so,  thanking  him  for  all 
his  civilities,  offered  to  take  his  leave.  But  Calvin 
waited  upon  him  to  the  inn  and  walked  with  him 
a  mile  out  of  the  territories  of  Geneva,  where  with 
great  compliments  they  took  a  farewell  of  each  other.'' 

Eckius  was  a  very  learned  divine,  professor  in  the 
university  of  Ingolstadt,  memorable  for  his  oppo- 
sition to  Luther,  Melanchthon  and  other  Reformers 
in  Germany.     He  died  in  1543,  aged  fifty-seven. 

•  CALVIN'S  OKDINATION. 

The  chief  difficulty  which  I  had  occasion  to 
mention  in  noticing  the  allegation  made  by  Ro- 
manists and  prelatists  that  Calvin  was  never  or- 
dained was  the  fact  that  there  is  no  record,  in  so 
many  words,  of  its  time  and  place  and  of  the 
persons  who  officiated  at  the  ordination.  I  have 
shown,  however,  that  there  is  every  evidence  that 
could  be  adduced  for  the  certainty  of  the  fact,  and 
for  its  univereal  recognition  by  all  his  contempora- 
ries, Romish,  Anglican  and  Reformed. 


APPENDIX.  205 

But  the  difficulty  may  be  met  by  an  argumentum 
ad  hominem.  Has  any  one,  I  ask,  ever  questioned 
the  ordination  of  Bishop  Butler,  or  does  any  one 
now  doubt  whether  he  was  really  and  canonical ly 
ordained  ?  The  answer  must  be  given  in  the  neg- 
ative. And  yet,  on  the  ground  assumed  by  our  op- 
ponents, his  ordination  may  be  altogether  denied. 
For  in  his  lAfe  by  Mr.  Bartlett  it  is  recorded  that 
"  at  what  time  he  took  orders  doth  not  appear,  nor 
who  the  bishop  was  by  whom  he  was  ordained." 
And  again :  "  It  is  perhaps  a  little  singular  that, 
notwithstanding  his  private  memoranda,  which 
refer  to  the  date  of  almost  every  other  event  con- 
nected with  his  public  life,  there  is  no  allusion 
either  to  the  period  of  his  ordination  or  to  the 
prelate  who  conferred  orders  upon  him.'' 

This,  certainly,  is  very  singular,  and  more  than 
a  parallel  to  the  case  of  Calvin.  Was  Calvin  ed- 
ucated in  the  Romish  Church  ?  Butler  was  brought 
up  in  the  Presbyterian  Church.  Had  Calvin  diffi- 
culty in  making  up  his  mind  to  embrace  the  Re- 
formed opinions  ?  So  had  Butler  in  receiving  the 
tenets  of  the  Establishment.  Did  Calvin  embrace 
and  avow  the  Reformed  opinions  respecting  the 
Church  and  the  ministry  and  ordination  ?  So  did 
Butler  those  of  the  Established  Church  in  Eng- 
land. And  do  these  avowed  opinions  of  Butler 
and  this  very  change  of  connection  make  it  cer- 
tain that  he  must  have  been  regularly  ordained, 
although  there  is  such    mysterious   absence  of  all 


206  JOHN  CALVIN. 

proof?  Theu  how  much  more  certainly  must  we 
conclude  that  such  was  also  the  case  as  it  regards 
Calvin  !  For  if  such  an  omission  can  be  supposed 
in  England,  at  so  recent  a  period  and  under  the  cir- 
cumstances of  the  case,  how  much  more  might  it  be 
looked  for  in  the  earliest  period  of  the  Reformation 
and  amid  the  incipiency  of  all  their  arrangements ! 

CALVIN'S  MISSION  TO  BRAZIL. 
It  was  during  this  dark  time  that  an  event  oc- 
curred which  has  escaped  the  notice  of  many  Amer- 
ican antiquaries  and  historians.  We  mean  the  em- 
igration of  French  Protestants  to  Brazil.  To  call 
this  a  mission  Dr.  Henry  thinks  inaccurate.*  Yet 
it  appears  from  the  letters  of  Richer,  the  preacher 
of  the  refugees,  that  they  were  not  without  some 
thoughts  of  converting  the  heathen.  Villegagnon, 
a  knight  of  Malta,  gave  the  great  Coligny  reason 
to  believe  that  he  was  about  to  secure  a  spot  in 
America  where  the  persecuted  Protestants  might 
find  a  refuge.  The  admiral  was  won  by  the  be- 
nevolent prospect.  A  small  island — we  suppose  it 
to  have  been  near  Rio  de  Janeiro — was  occupied  by 
Villegagnon  in  the  name  of  Coligny.  Ministers 
of  the  word  were  now  demanded,  and  Richer  and 
Chartier  were  sent  from  Geneva.  But  by  a  hid- 
eous treachery  these  poor  nonconformists  of  the 
South,  less  favored  than  'their  later  brethren  of 
Plymouth,  were  fiercely  pursued  under  the  French 

*  Guericke,  Kirchengeschichte,  p.  1151. 


APPENDIX.  207 

edicts.  Four  of  them  witnessed  a  good  confession 
and  were  cast  into  the  sea ;  the  rest  escaped  to 
France.  Jean  de  Lery,  afterward  a  minister  at 
Berne,  was  an  eye-witness  of  these  atrocities. 

The  unusual  interest  which  attaches  to  this  some- 
what obscure  chapter  in  history  justifies  us  in  add- 
ing a  few  more  particulars.  Nicolas  de  Villegagnon 
was  vice-admiral  in  Brittany  under  Henry  II. 
Being  disappointed  and  chagrined  because  his  ser- 
vices were  not  sufficiently  recognized,  he  put  him- 
self at  the  head  of  the  expedition  aforesaid.  There 
were  two  excellent  ships,  and  they  set  sail  in  1555. 
The  natives  were  kind,  but  the  settlers  had  more 
than  the  usual  trials  of  colonists.  Richer  was 
fifty  years  of  age,  and  Chartier  about  thirty.  Even 
on  their  voyage  they  were  ill-treated  by  the  people 
of  Villegagnon.  They  landed  on  the  7th  of  March, 
1556,  and  showed  their  letters,  to  which  was  ap- 
pended the  name  of  Calvin.  The  perfidious  gov- 
ernor did  not  at  first  throw  aside  the  mask,  but 
went  even  so  far  as  to  partake  of  the  Lord's  Sup- 
per according  to  the  Protestant  rite,  as  appears 
from    Richer's   letter   to  Calvin. 

In  this  letter  are  several  things  worthy  of  more 
special  notice  than  we  can  here  bestow.  There  is 
much  ndivetS  and  piety  in  the  good  missionary's 
report.  The  people  are  rude,  he  says,  though  he 
knows  not  assuredly  that  they  are  cannibals.  They 
have  no  sense  of  right  and  wrong  and  no  idea  of  God; 
so  that  there  is  little  hope  of  making  Christ  known 


208  JOHN  CALVIN. 

to  them.  Nothing  can  be  hoped  until  there  are 
more  settlers,  by  whose  converse  and  example  the 
Indian  people  may  be  Christianized. 

A  certain  learned  doctor  (Cointiac)  used  the 
preachers  ill  and  declared  himself  an  enemy  of 
the  Huguenot  worship.  In  this  he  was  now  join- 
ed by  Yillegagnon,  who  suspended  Richer  from  his 
functions.  Chartier  was  sent  to  Europe  to  repre- 
sent the  matters  in  contest.  Villegagnon  now  be- 
gan to  persecute,  and  forbade  the  wretched  exiles 
to  escape.  Richer  and  his  companions  retired 
to  the  forest,  where  they  were  humanely  treated 
by  the  savages.  But  others,  who  endeavored  to  get 
off  by  ship,  were  seized  and  imprisoned.  Ville- 
gagnon, in  his  new  zeal  for  popery,  condemned 
five  Huguenots  to  death  under  the  ordonnances  of 
Francis  I.  and  Henry  II.  One  Bordel  was  cast 
into  the  sea  to  die  as  a  martyr ;  so  died  also  Ver- 
meil and  Pierre  Bourdon.  Villegagnon  returned 
to  France  and  wrote  against  the  gospel,  but  was 
answered  by  Richer.  The  persecutor  died  wretch- 
ed and  impenitent. 


THE  END. 


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